Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar Allaibi said on Sunday his country plans to reach an agreement with Iran on exploitation of the joint oil fields. He made the remarks during his speech at the Iraq Energy Forum 2017. The official said Baghdad is in serious talks with Tehran on joint use of oil fields in the two country’s borders. He called for improvement of relations with neighboring countries to diversify the country’s oil and gas revenues.
Mr. Bahram Ghasemi told reporters on Thursday Iran had received an invitation to the session but had not come to a decision on participation or nonparticipation in Brussels, Iran’s state news agency IRNA report said. Brussels will host an international session organized by the EU and chaired by Federica Mogherini; “It will have two main objectives. On the one side, taking stock of the implementation of commitments of the donor community at the London conference, on which the EU has delivered in full”, Mogherini had told the press after the meeting earlier January. “But most of all it will be a political conference, hoping that could be the moment for the international community together to turn the page and start the political transition, the reconciliation process and the reconstruction of Syria”.
In the meeting on Thursday evening, Abdulah Skaka congratulated the Iranian ambassador on the new Iranian year, adding that in the contemporary world, cities are playing significant roles in economic, cultural and social fields and are regarded as the engines for development in their countries. He expressed hope to witness further expansion of relations and cooperation between the two capital cities in various fields as urban diplomacy and tourism. He also invited Tehran’s mayor to pay a visit to Sarajevo and underlined expansion of cultural cooperation between the two capitals. The Iranian ambassador, for his part congratulated Sarajevo mayor for his appointment to the post and said cultural and historical commonalities between the two nations and the political will of both governments for increasing level of mutual cooperation have prepared grounds for expansion of relations between the two capitals.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is able to make a most reliable partner for the European Union in the Middle East region, its Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Qassemi said that political and economic relations between Tehran and the EU had improved as a result of the conclusion of the 2015 nuclear deal and consultations between the two sides over other different issues. Iran is capable of fulfilling the economic demands of the EU as it can provide an intact market for investment following the removal of sanctions against the country under the nuclear deal, Qassemi added. Elsewhere in his remarks, Qassemi warned that the EU was in a state of crisis and might even collapse as the bloc was facing several challenges, including the conflict in Ukraine, economic woes, refugee crisis, rise of far-right nationalist parties, Brexit, and terror threats. The EU needs to boost cooperation with key international players to overcome the challenges that have made the bloc’s economy and security more vulnerable, he added.
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Reza Salehi Amiri said that Iran has created a cultural front against Terrorists like Takfiri groups in the Middle East. Amiri stressed on the need for developing cooperation between Tehran and Algiers. “Both countries have ideological and religious commonalities and they are able to take big steps in the Middle East and North Africa”, he said. He added cultural and art relations between the two countries are strong saying that Iran and Algeria have established good relations in sanitary, industrial, and agricultural fields. Salehi-Amiri left Iran for Algeria and Tunisia on Monday to sign documents on cultural and art cooperation.
President Rouhani told reporters that Iran and Russia have great potential and the necessary political will to develop cooperation and bilateral relations have entered into a new phase. The Iranian President went on to enumerate main axes of his talks with Vladimir Putin including transit of goods by connecting India to Eastern and Western Europe through Iran and Russia. Rouhani also enumerated other issues on which Tehran and Moscow shared similar views including preferential trade with 5 Eurasian countries, legal regime of the Caspian Sea as well as facilitating visa issuance for tourists as well as expansion of cultural and scientific relations.
Arab leaders at the 28th Arab Summit in Amman are urging action to condemn Iranian “meddling” in regional affairs in order to promote stability in the Middle East, according to a draft resolution, formed by 15 fundamental points, seen by Rudaw. Lebanon, Tunisia, and Iraq have, however, expressed reservations about the resolution. “We meet in a difficult Arab era dominated by crisis and conflicts that deprive our region of the security and stability they need to attain our people’s rights”, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told his fellow foreign ministers in a pre-summit meeting, Reuters reported. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi travelled to Jordan on Tuesday evening to attend the summit.
Most participants of the meeting of ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC oil producers, which took place in Kuwait City on Sunday, supported the extension of an agreement on oil output cut by six months but the final decision will be taken in May and will depend on the situation on the market. The Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) includes ministers of three OPEC member states – Venezuela, Kuwait and Algeria – and two countries that not part of the cartel, namely Russia and Oman.
Iranian Foreign Ministry released a statement enlisting 15 American companies involved in human rights violation under Iran’s sanctions from March 21. “The new measures of the American government, in imposing unilateral sanctions beyond its borders against individuals and entities from Iran and other countries based on fabricated and unjustified claims, are unfit to the international laws and regulations and betray the letter and general spirit of the JCPOA”. The statement continues with condemning the acts of Americans and reiterates that Iran will never compromise over its defense programs and capabilities as a measure to conserve its legitimate right of self-defense in face of any foreign aggression and enhancement of its deterrence power against threats.
On the second anniversary of aggression of the so-called coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia against Yemen, Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday to strongly condemn the blatant warmongering and called for putting an end to the devastating war and bloodshed in the country at the earliest. The Islamic Republic of Iran underlines its proposed four-article plan to stop conflict and bloodshed, dispatch of relief aid, removal of the unjust siege and unfair economic sanctions imposed on people in Yemen, and calls for establishment of a political dialogue and formation of a national unity government and urges the international community to spare no efforts to alleviate pains and sufferings of people in Yemen mainly those of children and women, read the statement.