Date: 06 Mar 2000
Time: 07:52:39
Remote Name: 156.29.145.175
Iranian, italian fms for further expansion of bilateral ties tehran, march 5, irna -- iranian and italian foreign ministers told a joint press conference at the end of their first round of talks here on sunday that tehran and rome are in full agreement on further expansion of bilateral ties. kamal kharrazi, referred to his talks with dini on bilateral, regional and international issues and said that italy is iran's top trading partner among european union (eu) members. kharrazi said that he and dini had decided to hold a joint meeting to study the process of globalization and its dimensions to draw up measures to reduce the negative effects of globalization on the economic and cultural life of developing countries. they both believed that drastic campaign against narcotics would be possible only through the contribution of all the eu member countries, said the iranian foreign minister. asked on the likely impact of the belgian court's verdict against the expediency council (ec) chairman akbar hashemi rafsanjani on relations between iran and the eu, kharrazi said belgium's action is irregular and beyond diplomatic and international norms. kharrazi added that presence of italian, german and french foreign ministers in iran is a token of firm relations between iran and the eu and certainly, belgium's action can not be supported by other members of the eu. asked about the british foreign minister, robin cook's visit to iran, kharrazi said that cook has been invited to visit iran. he said that he is to visit iran in spring but the exact date for the visit has not been set. meanwhile, dini, termed rome-tehran ties as 'comprehensive and extensive' and voiced his government's support for the policies of president mohammad khatami's administration. he said the showing of the iranian people at the polling booths for the sixth parliamentary elections on february 18, actually demonstrated the feelings of iranian people and bring the iranian opposition groups abroad closer to defeat.
he added that iran has the necessary potential and it is hoped that it would have the necessary will to play the role of a commandeering country in the region. the eu fully supports recent developments in iran, as was evident from the parliamentary election, and the support would go on in future as well, he added. the italian minister said that iran and italy agree on guiding globalization that is the end product of economic and technological growth because the phenomenon can not be prevented but it is needed to be guided. elsewhere in the interview, he said that belgium is only one of the members of the eu and what is going on in the country is up to it. ''what is supported by us and the eu is after that is expansion of relations with iran,'' he said. on the impact of exchange of diplomatic visits between tehran and rome, dini said that undoubtedly, through exchange of delegations, government can put their will for expansion of relations into practice. iran ranks first in supplying energy to italy and rome is for further strengthening of its ties with iran, he added. he said that he did not carry any message from american officials to iranian leaders. he expressed hope that italian officials would in their talks with iranian and the u.s. officials set conditions for resumption of political dialogue by the two countries. he welcomed iran's detente policy and said that italy closely follows developments in iran and is willing to see that iran has been identified as factor of stability in the region. asked whether he had raised topic of human rights in talks with his iranian counterpart, dini said that in talks on various dimensions of democracy in iran, he had dealt with the issue as well. he added, ''we paid attention to words of iranian officials on anxiety over activities of the (terrorist) mojahedeen khalq organization (mko), which had recently had some moves as well; and we condemn it once again as we did so in the past.'' bg/ end