During his meeting with Turkish counterpart Mustafa Şentop, Qalibaf said that the coronavirus pandemic and the US sanctions had negative impact on the ties between Iran and Turkey, but cooperation in different areas like regional issues can compensate.
He condoled Şentop on the death of several Turkish citizens in the wildfires in the country, stressing environment matters as a serious issue for humankind.
He pointed to Astana format to solve Syrian crisis, Afghanistan, spread of terrorist groups in the region and tensions in South Caucasus as the areas that could bring Iran and Turkey closer.
Qalibaf also urged early holding of the 6-way meeting between the parliaments of regional countries on Afghanistan, saying that he has brought up the issue in meeting with officials from Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
Şentop said that the relationship between Iran and Turkey is not kind of ties between two governments, but it is a friendly relationship between two nations.
He noted that Turkey shares the same sensitivity on the issue of Palestine as Iran does and Ankara has planned to hold permanent committee of Palestine at parliament speakers level.
He also pointed to Afghanistan and the distant perspective of peace because of the new movements of Taliban, urging special cooperation between Iran and Turkey on this issue.
Turkish Speaker agreed with Qalibaf on holding the 6-way meeting and making the event a permanent organization.
Şentop was in Iran to attend the inauguration ceremony of President Ebrahim Raisi which was held on Thursday afternoon.
After the inauguration, Qalibaf also met his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dačić who also attended the ceremony.
Qalibaf pointed to the good relations between parliaments of Iran and Serbia and expressed readiness to expand ties at high level.
He said that Iran and Serbia have great capacities to cooperate in political, defense, economic and cultural areas, noting that this could be achieved by a strong political will.
Dačić noted that the two countries have common interests which necessitate boosting bilateral ties.
He underlined that Serbia, as a sovereign nation, has never limited its ties with Iran under foreign pressure.
The Serbian Speaker agreed with Qalibaf that current ties between Iran and Serbia didn’t reflect the potentials, expressing hope that the two nations would soon see an improvement in this regard.
Elsewhere, Qalibaf met South African Parliament Speaker Thandi Modise, welcoming expanding parliamentary ties with the African country in different political, economic and parliamentary areas.
He expressed hope that holding the 15th joint economic commission between Iran and South Africa would improve the ties.
Qalibaf also said that Iran’s parliament was ready to hold continuous talks between women in parliaments of both countries.
Modise agreed the notion, saying that women’s role in the parliaments of the two countries was of importance.
She said that South Africa welcomed improvement of ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran in every field, especially parliamentary relationship.
She also hoped that her country could use Iran’s experiences in its advancement in technology, science and academic studies.
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