Diplomat: Iran to Discuss Opening of Border Terminal with Turkey

Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Bigdeli said that Turkey is willing to increase cross-border transactions and the Iranian government is making efforts to hold talks with the neighboring country to open a border terminal in the Koozehresh village in Salmas County, northwest of Iran.

The Iranian diplomat further emphasized the importance of the border terminal and said that in a meeting last week, attended by a number of officials from Iran's Interior Ministry and Foreign Ministry, the officials approved to pay a visit to the border district of Salmas and submit a report on this issue to the Iranian foreign minister.

He also touched upon the 24th meeting of Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Commission, which was held in Tehran on April 15, saying that during the talks, Tehran and Ankara set a target of $30 billion for annual trade by the end of 2015.

"According to the last year's reports, the value of transactions between the two countries stood at $1.2 billion per month, and it is hoped that the amount would be raised to 15 to 16 billion dollars this year," Bigdeli noted.

The 24th meeting of Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Commission was co-chaired by Iranian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Va’ezi and Turkish Minister of Development Cevdet Yilmaz.

In late January, Iran and Turkey signed a preferential trade agreement during a ceremony in Tehran attended by Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On the sidelines of the ceremony, Erdogan said the goal is to boost trade between Iran and Turkey to $30 billion by 2015, emphasizing that the both sides have the political determination to reach that objective.

Erdogan also hailed what he called the rebirth of Iran-Turkey ties in 2014, hoping that the current year would be a prelude to a remarkable growth of trade exchange between the two neighbors.