Iran Envoy: Promising Future Awaiting Iran-UAE Relations

Abu Dhabi, June 24, IRNA - Iranˈs Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohammad Reza Fayyaz said on Monday that the future of relations between Iran and UAE is very promising as it is expected to witness facilitation of visa issuance and removal of problems facing Iranian nationals residing in the country. Since formatio of the new Iranian government, relations between the two countries mainly in political field has been improving, he said. Speaking to IRNA, he said despite many ups and downs, the relations between the two countries have always been good at international level. Cultural, social and religious commonalities have consolidated relationship between the two nations, he said. The exchange of visits between the two sidesˈ foreign ministers in recent months is a good evidence of such a claim, he said. After a five-year delay, the two sidesˈ joint economic commission met early this year in the UAE, he pointed out. Private sectors are now playing a much bigger role in expading economic cooperation between the two countries, he said. Recently a high ranking economic delegation from UAE visited Tehran for two days to discuss promotion of cooperation between the two sidesˈ private sectors, he said. Level of trade exchange between the two countries had a downward trend due to political issues in the past four years, he said. Trade between Iran and the UAE stood at dlrs 15.7bn in 2013, dlrs. 17.8bn in 2012, dlrs. 23bn in 2011 and dlrs. 20bn in 2010 respectively, he said. Despite all issues, the level of official and unofficial trade exchange between the two sides amounted to hundreds of billons of dollars over the past four years which shows the high economic potentials of both countries, Fayyaz said. UAE should pay due attention to the atmosphere created after constructive talks between Iran and G5+1, he underlined. In fact, the UAE has suffered huge economic losses in recent years due to such problems, he said. The UAE is expected to do its best to compensate losses incurred due to its lowering the level of trade exchange with Iran./end