This is Lavrov’s first visit to Tehran under the 13th Iranian administration.
During the 2-day visit, the Russian foreign minister will discuss with Iranian officials the Iran nuclear deal and the situation in Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan.
The top Russian diplomat and the Iranian officials will also explore ways of strengthening trade and energy cooperation between Tehran and Moscow and will look into areas of cooperation with the Eurasian and Caucasian countries.
Khatibzadeh expressed Iranian government and nation’s deep sorrow to the Afghan brothers.
He prayed for their souls to rest in peace and wished recovery for those who were injured.
The spokesperson also voiced Iran’s readiness to provide help.
A powerful earthquake struck a rural, mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan early Wednesday, killing 1,000 people and injuring 1,500 more, according to reports. Officials warned that the already grim toll would likely rise.
Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has called on the international society and humanitarian organizations to assist Afghanistan.
In Kabul, Prime Minister Mohammad Hassan Akhund convened an emergency meeting at the presidential palace to coordinate the relief effort, and Bilal Karimi, a deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, wrote on Twitter to urge aid agencies to send teams to the area.
“The situation is quite critical,” Karimi said, adding, “Hundreds of houses are collapsed and we expect heavy human losses and serious damage to the infrastructure.”
The visit marks a step in bin Salman’s effort to rehabilite his image beyond the Persian Gulf, and comes as Erdogan seeks financial support that could help relieve Turkey’s beleaguered economy ahead of tight elections for the president.
In April, Erdogan held one-on-one talks with Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia after a months-long drive to mend relations between the regional powers, including dropping the Turkish trial over Khashoggi’s 2018 murder in Istanbul.
Erdogan said last week he and Riyadh’s de facto leader would discuss “to what much higher level” they can take ties during talks in Ankara.
The visit is expected to bring “a full normalisation and a restoration of the pre-crisis period,” a senior Turkish official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
“A new era will begin,” the official added.
Erdogan welcomed MbS at the presidential palace in Ankara with a ceremony and the two shook hands and embraced, before being met by members of the Turkish cabinet.
There are no public statements scheduled after their talks.
The Turkish official stated the two countries had lifted restrictions on trade, flights and the screening of TV series, with mutual negative media coverage also halted.
Agreements on energy, economy and security would be signed during the visit, while a plan was also in the works for Saudi funds to enter capital markets in Turkey, the official added.
However, he said negotiations on a possible currency swap line – which could help restore Turkey’s diminished foreign reserves – were not moving “as fast as desired” and will be discussed privately between Erdogan and the crown prince.
Prince Mohammed is on his first tour outside the Persian Gulf region in over three years including a visit to Jordan. Ties between Ankara and Riyadh took a turn for the worse after a Saudi hit squad killed and dismembered Khashoggi in 2018 at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Erdogan at the time blamed it on the “highest levels” of the Saudi government.
The visit, including the welcoming ceremony at the palace, marks a turnaround in their relations. Ankara stopped all criticism and halted its murder trial in April, transferring the case to Riyadh in a move condemned by human rights groups.
Prince Mohammed has been leveraging Saudi Arabia’s vast wealth and oil production capacity to lure in Western leaders and private business partners, hoping shifting geopolitics and a focus on social and economic reforms would soften criticism of his human rights record.
US President Joe Biden is set to visit Saudi Arabia in July as Washington struggles with record high gasoline prices and building a united front against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
The visit also comes as Turkey’s economy is badly strained by a slumping lira and inflation soaring beyond 70%. Saudi funds and foreign currency could help Erdogan shore up support ahead of elections by June 2023, analysts say.
The Turkish official said Saudi Arabia may be interested in companies within the Turkish Wealth Fund or elsewhere, or in making investments similar to those by the United Arab Emirates in recent months.
The leaders will also discuss the possible sale of Turkish armed drones to Riyadh, the person added.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), stated on Tuesday that Erdogan “will embrace the man who ordered the killing” of Khashoggi and accused him of trading “the country’s honour” for financial aid.
The figure announced by the Statistical Center of Iran is an 8.7 percent jump compared to the previous month and is the highest monthly inflation recorded in the country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Iran’s former monthly inflation record was 7.24 percent that was registered in 1995.
Based on the center’s report, the monthly inflation figure has been worse for rural households. They saw their costs surge by 18.1 percent in the month of Khordad.
Iran’s annual inflation now stands at 52.5 percent.
The country has been struggling to curb two-digit inflation figures for the past couple of years.
But the recent jump in the prices are triggered by the widely-criticized decision of the government to end allocation of the preferable US dollar to imports of necessities that multiplied the prices of such products as frying oil and dairies.
The administration’s director says Iran also recorded a positive trade balance of 605 million dollars in the period.
“In the first quarter of the year, almost 36 million tons of goods worth 25.5 billion dollars were traded between Iran and other countries, which is a 19.5 percent rise in foreign trade in the spring,” Alireza Moghaddasi says.
“The share of Iran’s exports in the foreign trade is 27.7 million tons of goods worth 13.06 billion dollars, which is a 21 percent rise compared to the spring of the previous year.”
He further explained that China, Iraq and Turkey were the three top destinations for Iranian exports purchasing Iranian products worth 14.21, 1.82, and 1.73 billion dollars, respectively.
Moghaddasi added that the United Arab Emirates, China and Turkey were also the main suppliers of goods to Iran in the first quarter of the year.
The official also talked about Iran’s foreign transit during the period, saying 6.676 million tons of foreign products were transported through Iran in the spring, which is a 32 percent jump compared to the previous year.
He described the figure as a “key achievement”.
Pirhossein Koulivand said Iran’s Red Crescent Society can provide medical assistance for the quake-hit Afghans.
Iranian search and rescue teams and healthcare staff affiliated with the Red Crescent Society are on high alert in case they are ordered to be deployed to Afghanistan.
The 6.1 in eastern Paktika province has killed more than one thousand people and wounded hundreds more, while many are unaccounted for.
It has also destroyed or heavily damaged large numbers of houses and buildings.
The number of deaths from the coronavirus pandemic in Iran increased to 141,373 with three more Iranians killed by the deadly disease over the past 24 hours, Iran’s Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
265 new cases of infection with the COVID-19 were found over the past 24 hours, 67 of whom were hospitalized, it added.
The Iranian Health Ministry noted that 7,060,989 patients out of a total of 7,235,440 infected people have recovered or been discharged from hospitals.
251 COVID-19 patients are in critical conditions and in intensive care units, it added.
The health ministry also said 64,619,286 Iranians have received the first dose and 57,963,187 people have so far received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Moreover, 27,690,678 people have also received the third shot as the booster jab.
Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini added that the letter of impeachment had been signed by 36 lawmakers but 20 of them have withdrawn their support for the motion as of yesterday (Tuesday).
The Iranian vice president underlined that it is no time for impeachment. Earlier, an MP said that parliament’s presiding board had agreed to the impeachment and that the motion had been referred to the relevant commission.
The minister, Reza Fatemi-Amin, has been under fire for his handling of industries in Iran, particularly the auto-industry.
Car prices have been soaring since last year despite many efforts by the ministry of industries mines, and commerce to bring them under control. This is while the Iranian auto makers have been criticized for the low quality of their products including by Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Speaking at a cabinet session on Wednesday, Presi9dent Raisi said the efforts of the doctors and nurses to fight the disease served as an example of bringing hope to society.
The president noted that the reopening of businesses and creation of vitality in the country became possible only thanks to people’s cooperation and the efforts of the healthcare staff, especially those who were martyred.
Raisi referred to the decrease in the number of Covid deaths and infections and the zero daily death toll, saying the efforts of the healthcare workers must be appreciated.
Earlier, Raisi had quoted the president of Gilan University of Medical Science as saying Basij volunteer forces were reaching the healthcare staff how to pacify people during the fight against the virus.
The head of Iran’s Nursing Association criticized him over the matter, urging the president to apologize to defenders of people’s health who made many sacrifices during the Covid pandemic. Covid-19 reached Iran over two years ago.
The disease killed hundreds of people daily during its peak. Many of the deaths were healthcare staff who had braved the danger from the potentially deadly disease to help with the fight to contain the pandemic.
Covid has killed over 141,000 people in Iran.
The Knesset voted to dissolve in a preliminary reading of a bill expected to be finalised next week, after which the centrist Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will take over from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the head of an interim government.
Lapid, who with Bennett ended Benjamin Netanyahu’s record reign a year ago by forming a rare political alliance of rightists, liberals and Arab parties, has cast the upcoming election as a battle between moderates and Netanyahu-embraced extremists.
Netanyahu, presently Israel’s opposition leader, was delighted by Bennett and Lapid’s move to disband what he has called the worst government in Israel’s history, hoping to break his own record and win a sixth term in office.
Four polls published on Tuesday found Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party and its likely allied nationalist and ultra-religious parties as leading the polls, but still short of a governing majority in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset.
Their rivals, on the left, right and centre, have vowed to prevent a return to power by Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges that he denies.
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