The bill passed by the Parliament authorizes the construction of the plants near the Aras River borderline in the Iranian town Marazad and Azerbaijan’s Ordubad.
The bill was passed with a majority of votes with 180 voters being for, 9 against and 5 abstentions.
This was part of several topics that Iran and Azerbaijan agreed on in a basic agreement they signed in December 2015.
The document envisages cooperation in construction of power plants at Khoda Afarin and Qiz Qalasi dams on Aras River as well as construction of Ordubad power plant on the Azerbaijani side and Marazad power plant on the Iranian side, Azernews.com reported. Moreover, the agreement involves the implementation of joint guideline operations on border rivers’ water management.
Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian previously said that cooperation with Azerbaijan in water and electricity sectors should be boosted. He also said that Tehran and Baku have held talks over construction of geothermal and wind power plants in Iran’s Meshkin Shahr and Khaf cities respectively, and the projects were said to kick off soon.
Iran and Azerbaijan have been recently increasing their cooperation in multiple areas. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani visited Baku in early August for a tripartite summit that also involved Russia. During his stay in the Azeri capital, Iran and Azerbaijan signed a series of basic agreements to promote cooperation in several key areas.
A key document was a protocol of intentions that envisages the materialization of an ambitious project to create a North-South transport corridor.
The corridor – named the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) – is an intercontinental multi-modal route that would link St. Petersburg to Mumbai. It primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road.
“We are a couple of steps away from what I hope would be a ground-breaking deal on resolving the particular situation around Aleppo,” Ryabkov told the Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday.
“Our (Russian and American) military people will meet again in the next few hours to finalize the deal. We are not there yet,” the senior Russian diplomat added.
Ryabkov is in Tehran on an official visit to meet with senior Iranian officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi.
Implementation of the July 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the developments in war-hit Syria are expected to be discussed in the meetings.
Aleppo has been divided since 2012 between government forces in the west and militants in the east. Syrian forces have been engaged in a major operation to liberate the militant-held areas of the city.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011 and according to UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, over 400,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Russia’s aerial support for the Syrian forces since September 2015 has given fresh impetus to the fight against the foreign-backed terrorists.
Iran has also remained a close ally of Syria and supports its legitimate government in the face of militancy.
Motorcycle adventurers entered Iran from Turkey, crossing the city of Maku in Iran’s West Azarbaijan Province. They were welcomed by University of Tabriz at first and then by Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.
