Sanctions expected to be on the table when Australian foreign minister visits Iran this week to lobby for forced repatriation of failed asylum seekers

Iran is likely to press for Australia to ease sanctions on petrochemical trade during a high-level meeting in Tehran later this week, when Julie Bishop will lobby to allow the return of asylum seekers whose refugee claims have been rejected.



Australia’s foreign minister is due to visit the Iranian capital for talks with her counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and other officials. The Australian government has signalled that it will push for Iran to accept the forced repatriation of asylum seekers whose claims for refugee status have been rejected.

An official from the Iranian embassy in Canberra said he expected Bishop to raise the asylum-seeker issue during the visit, but suggested the focus on the meetings would be much broader.

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The official, who did not wish to be named, said Iran hoped “that our relationship can be expanded in many areas – economically, politically, culturally, scientifically”. He said Iran was seeking to improve trade links between the two countries, including exports of petrochemical products from Iran to Australia.

Australia subscribes to internationally agreed sanctions against Iran, which largely focus on nuclear industry-related material.

But Australia also imposes its own measures on top of those restrictions, including a ban on importing Iranian crude oil, petroleum and petrochemical products without a sanctions permit. The sanctions also prevent Australian companies from entering into joint ventures, or offering loans, to Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical businesses.

The embassy official said international sanctions against the Iranian petrochemical industry were eased after an agreement at a meeting in Geneva in 2013. International talks continue on the detail of a deal relating to the Iranian nuclear industry.

“I think it is now the time that these [petrochemical] products can be exported to Australia from the Iran side,” the official told Guardian Australia on Monday. “It’s up to the Australian government to reopen its importing of these products from Iran. The relationship should be on a win-win basis, I think.”

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He noted that the Australian government was also “very keen” on exporting agricultural products and livestock to Iran.

“This is also something that is to the benefit of Australian farmers,” he said.

The agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, announced in May last year that exports of livestock to Iran could begin following an agreement on animal health certification requirements. But Australian exporters are yet to establish supply chains in Iran that are deemed to comply with the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (Escas), an arrangement that was set up after concerns about cases of animal cruelty.

“Part of that assurance scheme means that we have to make sure that the abattoirs that these animals will be slaughtered in are up to that Escas standard,” Joyce said on Monday. “We haven’t got that assurance yet on those abattoirs but the process is in place and people are very eager to start that trade.”

Guardian Australia was seeking comment from Bishop’s office on whether she was willing to consider easing Australian sanctions on Iran. She has previously welcomed progress towards a comprehensive agreement over Iran’s nuclear program after talks involving the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia and China.

Early this month, Bishop said “many details” were yet to be addressed but her visit to Iran would canvass “the nuclear issue and other important bilateral and regional issues”.

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, said on Saturday the government would “be talking to the Iranian government about taking back people who are Iranian citizens, because they deserve to be in Iran, they belong in Iran if they’re found not to be refugees”.

The Iranian embassy official said the asylum-seeker issue had been “one of the issues in the relationship between the two sides”.

“But it is only one of the subjects that I think is being discussed and there are certain other areas that, based on the mutual interests of the two sides, will be raised during the visit. Therefore we have to wait and see,” he said.

Asked if Iran was prepared to consider accepting forced returns of asylum seekers, he said: “This is a very difficult question. This is not an issue that is only being raised during this visit. It is a continuous issue in the relations … this is a very complicated situation and according to international laws and regulations there is no rule that can dictate a country to force the people who are seeking asylum to be back to their country.”

Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, would not directly comment on the prospects of a deal with Iran, but said the Abbott government was involved in “ongoing discussions” with “many countries” about repatriating people who were found not to be refugees.

Before she visits Iran, Bishop is spending three days in India. She said her talks with Indian government officials would include dealing with “administrative arrangements” to enable Australian uranium sales to India under a deal agreed last year.