TEHRAN– Iranian foreign minister and his visiting Turkish counterpart, yesterday agreed on designing a long-term “cooperation roadmap” and vowed to further comprehensive ties.
At the joint press conference held in the capital, Tehran, the Iranian Minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said, both sides agreed to draw up a new roadmap for a long-term cooperation between Tehran and Ankara.
Amir Abdollahian called relations between Iran and Turkey “friendly, historical and sincere” and said, “We are looking forward to the upcoming visit of the President of Turkey to Tehran. We will be able to finalise the roadmap for long-term cooperation between our two countries.”
He expressed the hope that the existing trade barriers between the two countries will be quickly removed by developing joint mechanisms.
“In today’s (yesterday’s) meeting, we paid special attention to facilitating transit traffic and consular issues, and we don’t see any obstacles to accelerate this cooperation,” he noted.
Under the circumstances of pandemic, Iran and Turkey’s trade relations were affected to some extent, however, both have been able to manage continuation of these relations, he said.
Asked about tripartite cooperation to open a trade route from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through Iran to Turkey, Amir Abdollahian said, “We are considering trilateral and multilateral cooperation, given the existing capacities in the region.”
As for regional and international issues, he stated that, there is a lot of consensus between Iran and Turkey on regional issues, which were considered during yesterday’s talks.
“We had a good conversation on various international and regional issues, focusing on the recent developments in Afghanistan and emphasising the stability of security in West Asia.”
With reference to the existing crisis in Yemen, the Iranian foreign minister expressed his hope that the civil war in the Arab state would end as soon as possible and it would bring an end to the humanitarian siege imposed on the country.
He also pointed to the recent developments in Lebanon, noting that, “we are concerned about what happened in the diplomatic area and the closure of some Arab embassies in this country, and we will continue our policies to support Lebanon.”
Iran and Turkey condemn the recent terrorist act against the Iraqi prime minister and hope that with the formation of a new parliament, stability will be restored in Iraq, said Abdollahian.
For his part, the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, expressed satisfaction with his visit to Iran and offered his sympathy with the victims of the recent earthquake in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province. “Turkey has always been a brother to Iran and is ready to provide any kind of services,” he said.
With reference to the upcoming talks on Iran’s nuclear programme, Cavusoglu urged the revival of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and lifting unilateral sanctions against Iran.
Expressing satisfaction with the resumption of JCPOA talks, he said, “I hope these talks will reach a positive result, not only for economic issues, but also for regional stability.”
He emphasised bilateral cooperation in regional issues as “important,” saying, Turkey is ready to cooperate with Iran on the issues about Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK