Ambassador Fahim Pour wished the Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson a successful and prosperous 2016, hoping that Serbia would continue with its progress. He restated that Iran considers Serbia to be a friendly country, evidenced in the numerous contacts between the two countries’ dignitaries aimed at improving cooperation in the spheres of education, science, technology, trade, foreign affairs, and especially their parliamentary cooperation reflected in the National Assembly Speaker’s successful visit to Tehran. He hopes the improvement of parliamentary cooperation would continue after the coming parliamentary elections in Iran and Serbia, and that the cooperation between working bodies and parliamentary friendship groups would also follow and upward trend. The officials agreed to exchange parliamentary visits after the elections. The Ambassador reminded the Chairperson of the successful operation of the Iran-Serbia mixed commission which had resulted in the signing of four memorandums concerning the two countries’ tourism and economic cooperation. He also announced the first visits by Iranian tourists to Serbia in late March of this year when two 300 strong groups are planned to visit Belgrade.

On the occasion, Ambassador Fahim Pour presented Chairperson Djurovic with a letter of the Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, inviting Serbia to joint forces in the fight against terrorism.

Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson Aleksandra Djurovic congratulated the Iranian Ambassador on the lifting of the sanctions against his country following the signing of the Agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme, saying that Serbia had experienced a period of sanctions and knows full well that they had never amounted to any good nor ever resolved any problem.

“Economic cooperation between countries should develop independent of political influence which should concentrate on using diplomatic tools to resolve open issues”, said Djurovic.

She agreed with Ambassador Fahim Pour that the friendly relations between Iran and Serbia should be improved through economic cooperation i.e. that the excellent parliamentary cooperation should be followed by good economic cooperation. Djurovic opined that last year was very successful for Serbia, resulting in the opening of two negotiation chapters with the European Union, and added that she expected the process to continue this year. She added that Serbia had shown readiness to be part of the solution of the migrant crisis, but that the issue cannot be resolved without addressing its root cause – terrorism. Djurovic also agreed with the Iranian Ambassador’s comment that the Syrian people themselves should choose their own representatives.

The Foreign Affairs Committee Chairperson thanked the Iranian Ambassador for his country’s support of Serbia’s territorial integrity in Kosovo-Metohija, and the fact that Iran voted against Kosovo’s UNESCO bid.