Justice Minister Lauds Turkey's stance on Iran

Iranian Justice Minister Morteza Bakhtiari lauded the age-old friendly ties and cooperation between Tehran and Ankara, and praised the stances taken by Turkey towards Iran, specially in recent years. "The different stances that have been taken by Turkey towards Iran specially in the recent years are deserved to be praised," Bakhtiari said at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Sadullah Ergin on Wednesday. "We are glad that cultural and political relations and economic interactions between the two countries have grown and reached an acceptable level," he stated, adding that the two sides had over $15bln of trade exchanges in 2011 and plan to increase the value of their trade ties to $30bln by 2015. He further lauded Turkey's independent stance in supporting Iran's right of access to peaceful nuclear technology. Iran and Turkey have in recent years increased their cooperation in all the various fields of economy, security, trade, education, energy and culture. The two sides have exchanged several politico-economic delegations during the last few months. After the West intensified its sanctions on Iranian oil and economy, Turkey announced that it is not obliged to follow the West's decision on imposing a ban on Iranian oil supplies. In January, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu ruled out the possibility of Ankara complying with the West's unilateral sanctions against Iran, and added that Turkey is currently trying to facilitate talks between Tehran and Western nations on Iran's nuclear program.