Iran, Turkey Strongly Opposed to Secession of Regional States: Rouhani

In a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Iranian capital, Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani said the two sides held extensive talks on the regional issues including Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan.

“We denounce the foreign powers’ plot to fan the flame of ethnic and religious conflicts in the region,” Rouhani said, adding the two countries are also totally against any regional secession, a Farsi report by Tasnim New Agency said.

The Iranian president said Iran and Turkey view Iraq and Syria as unified countries and added, “Iraqi Kurdistan is among our brotherly neighbours and we don’t like to exert any pressure on the Kurds but the wrong decision made by the Iraqi Kurdish leaders must be reconsidered otherwise, Iran, Turkey and Iraq have no way but to adopt serious measures to achieve some strategic goals.”

Rouhani called the fight against terrorism one of the main joint goals of Iran and Turkey and said the two sides will fight terrorism anywhere regardless of its name.

“Terrorism can’t press ahead with its inhumane operations if the regional states stand united,” he added.

The Iranian president said the two Muslim nations of Iran and Turkey are the anchor of security in the region.

“Our relations have been developing in various political, cultural and economic fields over the past years. In our public and private meetings, I and the Turkish president adopted some significant decisions including expanding our banking relations and multiple our trades by national currencies,” he said.

Rouhani said Iran and Turkey agreed to finalize their decisions in banking relations by the coming days. “Meanwhile, we signed some agreements in customs to import and export goods via three border points as part of efforts to expand our bilateral relations. Two border points are set to become 24/7 as of Thursday and the third one is now under construction.”

“In oil and gas fields, we agreed to allow the Turkish side to extract more amounts of gas and oil. The related ministries are set to make the arrangements. Meanwhile, Iran has announced its readiness to welcome more Turkish investments in this field,” he said.

“Iran is determined to expand its trade volume with Turkey to $30b,” he said.