President:

Closer Iran-Turkey Cooperation Needed to Boost Regional Stability

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed concern over security problems facing the Middle East, saying closer cooperation between Tehran and Ankara can help resolve them.

News ID: 65789

Date: 31 August 2017 - 18:18

In a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Thursday, President Rouhani offered his congratulations on Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s holiest festivals celebrated annually around the world, and hailed the ties between the two countries as "cordial and growing”.

Rouhani said his administration is determined to promote the Islamic Republic’s bilateral relations with Turkey as a "friendly neighbor”.

"Today, the sensitive regional situation is such that the two countries should cooperate more than ever in order to establish stability and security in the region,” the Iranian president said.

Also, in apparent reference to the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s planned referendum on independence and the rift between Qatar and some other Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, Rouhani said that "Iran never considers certain secessionist tendencies in the region and the problems that have emerged in the Persian Gulf region as being in the interest of regional peace and stability.”

Erdogan, for his part, congratulated Rouhani on Eid al-Adha and said Ankara is resolved to deepen its relations with Tehran in all political and economic areas.