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The president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, is on a good-will trip through Europe. Today, he's in Italy. He wants to rebuild trade ties with other countries now that economic sanctions linked to Iran's nuclear program have been lifted, but the country still faces some strict U.S. sanctions that limit its financial activities. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on how those sanctions are complicating Iran's efforts.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Before leaving Iran this week, President Rouhani made clear that his country is open for business with Europe.
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HASSAN ROUHANI: (Through interpreter) We've had friendly relations with France and Italy in the past. We want to have a good relationship with them now as well.
ZARROLI: And plenty of companies are eager to take Iran up on its invitation. Even before Iran's nuclear sanctions were lifted, the country was seen as a huge potential market for Asian and European companies. Nader Habibi is a professor of economics at Brandeis University.
NADER HABIBI: There are many firms in Europe that are eager to enter into Iranian market. Many of them have already made initial trips to prepare the ground for partnerships or investment in Iran.
ZARROLI: Last year, Germany's foreign minister visited Tehran with a large delegation of business leaders, says Julia Pfeil, senior associate at the law firm Baker-McKenzie.
JULIA PFEIL: There's also been large trade conferences here in Germany, in Austria but also in Switzerland and the U.K where you could see high-profile members of the Iranian government and also high-ranking managers of European companies that were both very interested in doing business with each other.
ZARROLI: But Pfeil says it's not yet clear what all these conferences and delegations will lead to. The nuclear sections against Iran may have been lifted, but the U.S. government still has other sanctions in place that predate them, sanctions tied to Iran's human rights record and support for terrorism. Habibi says these sanctions have a reach that go far beyond U.S. borders.
HABIBI: Those sanctions can still cause some problems and make some of the European businesses and banks subject to U.S. economic punishment.
ZARROLI: Among other things, the U.S. Treasury Department says money from Iran may not be processed through the U.S. financial system. Again, Julia Pfeil.
PFEIL: So if you receive money from Iran as a bank or as a company, you must make sure that this money does not then go to the U.S., to a U.S. bank or to your U.S. subsidiary.
ZARROLI: Pfeil says this is a real problem for foreign banks since virtually all of them have large operations in the United States. There's no easy way to isolate Iranian money from the rest of the bank's holdings. The U.S. government has recently imposed big fines on foreign banks for sanctions violations. So Pfeil says companies that want to do business with Iran have to find banks willing to work with them, and that's not so easy.
PFEIL: So at this stage, we're not even discussing with clients whether or not they will be able to receive financing from a bank. At this stage, the main headache is how - if I deliver something to Iran, how does it - how do I get the payment from a customer.
ZARROLI: Pfeil says companies doing business in Iran will probably have to find small banks that don't have any U.S. operations. Jimmy Gurule, a former Treasury Department official who now teaches at Notre Dame Law School, says he thinks a lot of companies will ultimately decide to enter the Iranian market.
JIMMY GURULE: The economic incentive may just be too great an allure for the counterterrorism sanctions to have a chilling effect.
ZARROLI: But the U.S. sanctions represent a big hurdle for these companies, and it's not clear that allure will be enough to offset the risks they face. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.