Iran's FM Confers With Ethiopian Premier On Int'l Developments

Djibouti city, Nov 17, IRNA - Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi concluded his trip to the African continent here on Friday, by having a meeting with the Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Salehi declared in the meeting Tehran's preparedness to develop relations with Ethiopia in all fields and stressed the importance of exercising the bilaterally reached agreements and the immediate holding of the next Joint Commission for Economic and Cultural Cooperation. Salehi pointed to the ongoing crisis in Syria and Gaza and asked the international community to stop the Zionist regime's raid on the defenseless Palestinians there. The Egyptian prime minister for his part welcomed the expansion of bilateral ties with Iran. Desalegn stressed the importance of political cooperation between Iran and Ethiopia on development in the African continent including the political developments in Sudan and Somalia. 'Only Syrians themselves should decide about their future and all the sides should avoid violence,' the high-ranking Ethiopian official said in the meeting. The Ethiopian premier welcomed Iran's invitation of him to visit Tehran. Meanwhile, the Iranian foreign minister met with the Djiboutian President Ismael Omar Gelle in the capital city, Djibouti on Thursday. Salehi, who is in Djibouti to attend the 39th ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), met the Djiboutian president on the sidelines of OIC meeting. Pointing to the friendly political ties between the two countries, the Iranian foreign minister underlined the importance of expansion of bilateral trade and economic ties. He also mentioned common outlooks between the two countries in different regional and international issues. Salehi conveyed the warm greetings of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to his Djiboutian counterpart and thanked him (on behalf of Iranian president) for attending the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit held in Iran in late August. The Djiboutian president Ismael Omar Gelle, for his part, reiterated the special relations between the two countries and described the potentials for enhancement of bilateral economic ties as appropriate. He said that cooperation of Muslim countries for resolving the prevailing global problems in necessary, and criticized the dominant oppression throughout the world by global arrogant powers and the Zionist regime./end