IRANIAN OFFICIAL URGES GREATER ECONOMIC TIES WITH ARMENIA

Arminfo
17 Jul 07

Yerevan, 17 July: "The Iranian Foreign Ministry has assumed
chairmanship of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission
because the current level of economic cooperation with Armenia does
not satisfy us," the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s main
department for economic cooperation, Seyyed Mehdi Mir Abutalebi,
said at a meeting of an expert group in Yerevan on 17 July.

He said that political dialogue between Armenia and Iran is at a
higher level and important steps need to be taken to increase economic
cooperation. The representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry pointed
out that the governments of the two countries attach importance to
increasing trade but significant results have not been achieved yet.

In order to increase trade volumes, it is necessary to create free
trade and increase trade to 1bn dollars in 2007 (trade between Iran
and Armenia totalled about 150m dollars in 2006), as well to start
taking action required to this effect.

We should note that the expert group, which is meeting in Yerevan,
will prepare relevant questions and documents that will be discussed
at the seventh meeting of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental
commission on 20 July. It is planned that the meeting will result in
the signing of a number of documents and agreements, in particular
a document on free trade. Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki
will arrive in Yerevan to attend the meeting.