Iranian, South African officials discuss issues of common concern

TEHRAN,April 18(MNA) – A meeting of the Iran-South Africa joint political committee was held in Tehran on Wednesday, in which bilateral ties and other regional and international issues of common concern were discussed. The meeting was chaired by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim. During the meeting, the two sides expressed their readiness to hold the 11th meeting of the joint economic committee in the near future. The latest developments in Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen were discussed during the meeting and the Iranian and South African officials emphasized that the crises in the three countries should be resolved diplomatically through national dialogue and a halt to violence. Commenting on the situation in Syria, Amir-Abdollahian said that the two-year-old crisis in Syria was the result of foreign interference, adding, “In order to help resolve the crisis in Syria politically, the Islamic Republic of Iran has presented a package of proposals to the United Nations representative (Lakhdar Brahimi) and wants the Geneva II conference to be held under the auspices of this organization.” A meeting of the Action Group on Syria, organized by Kofi Annan, the former UN-Arab League joint special envoy on Syria and Brahimi’s predecessor, was held in Geneva on June 30, 2012. The South African deputy foreign minister said, “South Africa has been in contact with the conflicting parties in Syria within the context of international talks, such as BRICS (meetings).” The Palestinian issue and the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program were also topics for discussion on the meeting’s agenda. Ebrahim emphasized Iran’s right to peaceful use of nuclear energy and said that South Africa was keen to see the continuation of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers.