Iran, Turkey developing ties in all fields

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a meeting with Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Cicek stressed the age-old and close relations between Tehran and Ankara, and said the two countries are expanding their all-out ties. “The relations with Turkey in the past months have been developing in different fields,” Rouhani said during the meeting on the sidelines of the Meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Tehran on Tuesday. He also referred to the recent visit by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Tehran and the agreements inked by the two countries during the trip, and expressed the hope that the deals would help further improve the relations between the two Muslim neighboring nations. Cicek, for his part, underscored the importance of the agreements signed during Erdogan’s visit to Tehran, and expressed the hope that the first meeting of the two countries’ High Political Council would be held during President Rouhani’s future visit to Ankara. He also called for Iran and Turkey’s cooperation to settle the problems in the Muslim world. Erdogan was in Tehran late January to discuss key bilateral and regional issues with senior Iranian officials. The Turkish premier held talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, President Rouhani and other Iranian officials during the two-day visit. The Turkish premier was accompanied by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz and Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci. During the visit, Iran and Turkey signed several cooperation agreements. In a statement before leaving Turkey, Erdogan hoped his visit would create a suitable atmosphere for increasing the trade exchange to $30 billion by 2015, from $13 billion last year. Earlier in January, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited Turkey and met with Erdogan and Davutoglu. During the meeting between the Iranian foreign minister and Turkish premier, Tehran and Ankara underlined their determination to boost the value of bilateral trade volume to $30 billion by 2015. Iran is Turkey's second biggest gas supplier after Russia. Turkey uses a significant portion of its imported Iranian natural gas to generate electricity.