Ahmadinejad meets Gul before CICA Summit

Istanbul, June 8, IRNA – Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met and conferred with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul before CICA the Summit, themed “Interactions and Measures Aimed at Trust Building in Asia” here Monday.

According to IRNA’s dispatched reporter to the summit, the meeting took place behind closed doors.

Ahmadinejad arrived in Turkey’s Ataturk Airport Monday evening to attend the conference.

The President’s Consultant Esfandiar Rahim Masha’ie, the president’s top assistant Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki are accompanying him in this visit.

The two-day summit is led by Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah and in addition to President Ahmadinejad, there are the Russian President Vladimir Medvedev, the President of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliev, the President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, the President of Kazakhstan Noor Sultan Nazarbayev, the Head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and top officials from some other countries attending the summit meeting.

Representatives from the United States, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ukraine, Qatar, the United Nations, and the EU Security and Cooperation Organization are attending the meeting this year.

The foreign ministers’ meeting of CICA began activities Monday afternoon and its summit would begin on Tuesday.

CICA Summit is held in Istanbul under conditions that the world public opinion asks for punishing the Zionist regime for its barbarous attack against an international peace Flotilla recently and blocking the path of a new carrying humanitarian aides for Gaza one later on.

Turkey is to become the rotating head of CICA during Istanbul Summit.
At Istanbul CICA Summit Iraq and Vietnam, too, are attending as new members./end