Tehran, Iran, April 7
By Temkin Jafarov, Khalid Kazimov – Trend:
Iran and Turkey have friendly relations and it has been so for a long time, Mohammad Alipour, member of the Economic Committee of Iran's parliament told Trend April 7.
Despite some regional developments on which the two countries may hold differing views, common interests push them to preserve the mutual bonds, he said.
The MP went on to add that Iran has the highest trade turnover with Turkey among the neighboring countries.
Right now, the trade turnover between Iran and Turkey is something between $12 billion and $15 billion; and the two countries’ presidents announced recently that they intend to boost mutual trade to $30 billion, Alipour stated.
He further pointed to recent remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyep Erdogan, which have caused much controversy, and maintained the statements came hard on Iranians.
Turkey's President arrived in Tehran today, heading a high-ranking delegation which includes a number of Turkish ministers.
Momentary political issues cannot affect the old relations between Tehran and Ankara, he said.
Back in March, Erdogan accused the Islamic Republic of trying to monopolize the Middle East by seeking a Shia-dominated hegemony in neighboring countries.
Following Erdogan’s accusations, on April 6 some 65 Iranian MPs asked President Hassan Rouhani in a letter to caution his Turkish counterpart against his anti-Iranian remarks.
Also, 50 lawmakers signed a letter asking Rouhani to prevent Erdogan from entering Iran.
In response, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin made some remarks.
“We have sent a clear message on these letters. The MPs would have to adopt a wise procedure so that their government may take a constructive policy rather than a populist approach. In the past 5 years, 300,000 people have been killed in Syria and we are ready to cooperate with responsible sides to end the situation,” he stated.
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