Fars News Agency, Iran
March 13 2009

Mottaki: Presidents of Iran, Armenia Initiators of Fresh Bilateral
Ties

Tehran (FNA)- Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Friday
that presidents of Iran and Armenia were initiators of a fresh round
of ties between the two countries.

The Iranian top diplomat made the remark during a joint press
conference following a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Edward
Nalbandian, the Islamic republic news agency reported.

He highlighted the role of the presidents of the two countries in the
past four years in constructing a new phase in bilateral relations
and, pointing to the old and friendly relations always existing
between the two nations, said Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had
invited his Armenian counterpart to visit Iran to further expand
existing relations.

Saying that he had mainly focused on energy and communications while
discussing a wide range of issues in his meeting with Nalbandian, he
said given the high potentials of both countries, the present level of
Iran-Armenia relations needed to be significantly promoted in the
future.

The Armenian foreign minister, too, said he had discussed issues of
mutual interest as well as the most important regional and
international topics with Mottaki and expressed satisfaction over the
friendly and positive atmosphere prevailing over talks between the two
countries’ officials.

Mottaki arrived in Yerevan on Thursday for a two-day visit. He has so
far met with Armenia’s president, prime minister, parliament speaker,
secretary of national security council and minister of energy and
natural resources.

Iran and Armenia have been enjoying a growing trend of ties in the
past few years especially in such areas as politics, economy and
energy.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress