Round Table Surveys Heydar Alievˈs Role In Strengthening Friendship With Iran

Baku, June 8, IRNA – A Roundtable allocated to surveying late Azerbaijani Republic President Heydar Alievˈs role in strengthening relations with Iran was sponsored by Trend News in Baku Thursday. At this round table in the presence of Iran's ambassador to Baku and Azerbaijan Parliament Member and Iran-Azerbaijan Friendship Group Member Aidin Mirzazadeh, a broad spectrum of issues related to bilateral relations and need for expending them were discussed. The Iranian Ambassador Mohsen Pakaˈien referring to the role of the late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliev in strengthening Iran-Azerbaijan relations said, ˈI have written a series of articles on ˈViewpoints of Heydar Aliev on Permanent Friendship with Iran ˈ of which so far seven articles have been published, and I am going to publish their complete set in a book on the 91st birth anniversary of the late Azerbaijani leader.ˈ According to him, Iran has always been by the side of Azerbaijan Republic and on the contrary of what is propagated in western countries and their media, there is not difference between the two courtiers that cannot be solved. Paka'ien added, ˈThe western media and officials are neither the friends of Iran nor the friends of Azerbaijan Republic. They try to antagonize the two brother nationsˈ relations and pretend that the Tehran-Baku relations have always been and will always be crisis-prone.ˈ He expressed hope that in order to solve some of the issue bilateral economic ties, such as facilitating the commerce laws and those related to the two countriesˈ making investments, would be discussed in negotiations between the two countries high ranking officials. The Iranian ambassador said that the unofficial volume of bilateral trade is one billion dollars, adding, ˈThe official respective figure is announced to be 500 million dollars, while the statistics on boarder dwellers of the two countries is not included in that calculation.ˈ He said, ˈPresently, each week 5,000 Iranian citizens enter the soil of Azerbaijan and the number of Azerbaijani citizens who visited Iran for paying pilgrimages, visiting the Iranian medical centers, and tourism in recent years has been 700,000.ˈ MP Aidin Mirzazadeh, too, emphasized that despite some destructive moves against the bilateral relations by some non-friend countries, the late Azerbaijani leaderˈs Permanent Friendship Policy with Iran policy is still effective. The MP pointed out that during the tenure of the late President Aliev the two countriesˈ relations got stronger, adding, ˈYet today, too, we need to further strengthen these ties, and the volume of bilateral trade, for instance is not satisfactory and needs to be increased, as the matter is of high importance for Baku.ˈ He added, ˈThe close and intimate relations that the Iranian Embassy has established with Azerbaijan Republic media is the sign of feeling maximum responsibility in diplomatic field, and taking advantage of the entire means at the service of expansion of bilateral relations./end