TEHRAN – Government spokesman Mohammad Baqer Nobakht on Tuesday praised the $5 billion gas deal recently signed between Iran and France’s energy giant Total, saying the French company’s investment would be highly profitable for the country.

The project will generate $85 billion of income in a 20-year period, Nobakht told reporters at his weekly press conference.

Foreign investors will receive $12 billion of the income and the rest would go to Iran, he noted, adding that the contract is unprecedented since the nuclear deal went into effect.

MH/PA