Larijani stresses need for expanding ties with Armenia

Tehran, Nov 25, IRNA-Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani here Monday in meeting with Armenia Republic's Secretary of National Security Cuncil Arthur Baghdasarian stressed need for more expansion of Tehran-Yerevan comprehensive ties.

According to IRNA parliamentary affairs reporter, Larijani in the
Monday evening meeting at his office expressed satisfaction over the
expanding trend of the two countries' relations and said that
bilateral ties are deep-rooted.

He added, "Iran-Armenia relations date back to remote past in history,
have always been convergent, and their basis is the close and deep
relations between the two nations."
The Majlis speaker meanwhile described such good relations between the
neighboring countries as "a main factor" serving regional peace and
security.

Iran's former secretary of Supreme National Security Council
emphasizing the need to identify appropriate new fields for expansion
of bilateral ties, arguing, "During the course of the past few years
long strides have been taken to strengthen and deepen political and
economic ties, and to expand the dimensions of industrial cooperation,
but there are still lots of unused potentials that can be used to
further improve the level of friendly relations."
Larijani emphasized the effective and important role of the two
countries' parliaments in expansion of relations, reiterating, "Iran's
Majlis backs up any move aimed at expansion of comprehensive ties." In
that respect, he evaluated as "important" the role of the two
countries' joint economic commission in implementation of the agreed
upon economic and industrial projects.

The Secretary of Armenia's National Security Council, too, in the
meeting referred to his country's relations with Iran as "strategic",
reiterating, "Expansion of ties at all political, economic, business
and infrastructure fields with Iran is among the priorities in foreign
relations doctrine of my country."
Baghasarian in the same respect stressed the need for continuous
exchange of opinions and consultations between the two countries' top
leaders, particularly regarding the regional developments.

The Armenian official referred to the two countries' cooperation in
railway and road transformations and in energy field, arguing,
"Pursuing cooperation in such infrastructure fields plays an important
role in strengthening strategic ties."
Baghdasarian was agreed with Larijani on the point that the two
countries' parliaments play an important role in improvement of the
level of cooperation and emphasized the need for expanding relations
between the two parliaments' different commissions, as well as broader
interactions between the two parliament's friendship groups.

He also considered Iran's role in regional dispute solving as
"important and unignorable", concluding, "The Islamic Republic of Iran
for instance plays and important and unignorable role in assuring and
strengthening peace and security in the Caucasus region."