Larijani to Meet Turkish FM Tomorrow


Larijani to Meet Turkish FM Tomorrow

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is scheduled to meet Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Tehran on Wednesday.

“Larijani and Davutuglu will meet on Wednesday morning,” Iranian Parliament Speaker’s International Affairs Adviser Hossein Sheikholeslam told the Tasnim News Agency.

He added that the Turkish foreign minister is coming to Tehran to participate at an Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) ministerial conference.

Davutoglu will visit Tehran on November 26-27 upon an invitation from his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

During his stay in Tehran, Davutoglu will meet with Iranian officials in a bid to confer on a variety of issues, including bilateral relations.

The Turkish foreign minister will also exchange views with the Iranian officials on the regional and international developments.

Recently, Zarif was in Turkey to attend the nuclear disarmament and international security meeting.

Iranian officials say Iran and Turkey are two major and influential regional countries, which can contribute to peace in the Middle East.

Syria is a contentious issues in relations between Iran and Turkey as they each support opposing sides in the war in that country that has raged on for nearly three years.

While Turkey has strongly supported the rebels fighting the government in Syria and believes that President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must go, Iran has back the government, saying that the future of the country should be decided through diplomacy and ballot boxes not through the barrels of the guns.

But as the conflict in Syria is threatening to spiral out of control and as the extremists have started to take the upper hand, there is a realizations by some countries, including Turkey, that they have barked up the wrong tree.

Although there are frictions between the two countries in some areas, there are other areas including security and trade that have bound the two Muslim neighbors.

Iran, which owns the world’s largest natural gas reserves, is Turkey’s second biggest gas supplier after Russia. Turkey uses a significant portion of its imported Iranian natural gas to generate electricity.

The volume of Iran-Turkey annual trade exchanges reached roughly USD16 billion in 2011, and soared past USD22 billion by the end of 2012.

Turkish exports to Iran are mainly machinery, motor vehicles, iron and steel products, boilers, electric devices, tobacco products. Crude oil and natural gas dominate Iranian exports to Turkey with 90%.

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