Tehran-Moscow coop. ‘critical’ for fighting terrorism

 Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif stressed the need for cooperation and consultations between Iran and Russia in combating terrorism.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who is in Moscow for a trilateral meeting with his Russian and Syrian counterparts with a focus on combating terrorism, held separate talks with Foreign Minister Lavrov on Friday prior to the meeting.

"Cooperation between the two countries in regard to bilateral relations has made a lot of good progress, and in the last few months we also managed to have joint consultations and cooperation on regional and international issues,” Zarif said during the meeting with Lavrov.

The Iranian foreign minister maintained that the plight of civilians in Syria and Yemen calls for greater and constant cooperation, adding "there needs to be more extensive talks and cooperation held with the presence of Syrian foreign minister in bilateral and trilateral meetings.”

Sergey Lavrov, for his part, expressed satisfaction with the progressing trend in Iran and Russia’s relations, adding "the two countries’ relations have good capacities for cooperation on economy, trade, politics, culture and tourism.”

"The fifth summit of Caspian states is an important topic that we will discuss today, because we want the Caspian Sea convention to be signed as soon as possible,” Lavrov said.

"We will also discuss the Syrian situation very closely and confer with Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syrian people,” he said. "We need to stand against plots and combat terrorism decisively and without appeasement.”

Lavrov further noted that Iran and Russia’s nuclear cooperation is well underway, adding "the two countries’ joint economic commission’s meeting will be held in December. At the meeting, we will sign the Garmsar-Incheh Borun railway contract, as well as the construction of a power plant in Bandar Abbas.”

Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, is also expected to visit Iran on November 13-14 for talks with her Iranian counterpart, he added.

Lavrov further noted that the agreements signed during the latest meeting between President Rouhani and President Putin were discussed at the meeting with Zarif.