Iranian delegation meets Azeri speaker

Baku, Oct 18, IRNA Iranian observer team, currently here to monitor the Azeri
presidential elections, held on October 15, met and conferred with
Speaker of the Azeri Parliament, Ogtay Assadov on Friday.

Ilham Aliyev won a second term on Wednesday in a landslide victory.

During the meeting, Assadov appreciated efforts made by the Iranian
delegation to monitor the trend of presidential elections in his
country.

He underscored the need for further activation of Tehran-Baku
parliamentary friendship group in order to help promote parliamentary
relations between the two friendly and neighboring countries.

Head of Iranian delegation, Kazem Mousavi, for his part, congratulated
the successful holding of the Azeri presidential elections and called
for boost in ties between the two states.

In addition to the Iranian delegation, representatives from 60
countries are in the country to observe the trend of elections.

The country of 8.3 million people - mainly Shia Muslims - lies at a
strategic crossroads between East and West, sandwiched between Russia
and Iran and straddling a region merging as a major energy transit
route from Central Asia to Europe.

There are 4,731,879 qualified for voting in the Azerbaijan Republic.