President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that Iran-Turkey cooperation will consolidate bases of stability in the region, IRNA reported.
In a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Saturday, President Rouhani emphasized positive impact of the Tehran-Ankara cooperation on settlement of regional issues.
'Iran and Turkey share common goals and interests and they should through cooperation and coordination and focusing on campaign against terrorism as common enemy, consolidate bases of stability and peace in the region,' he said.
He added that Iran and Turkey are two brotherly neighboring countries, sharing abundant religious and cultural commonalties. 'The basis of religious ideology of the two countries is totally different with that of certain violence seeking countries.'
He noted, 'Today, forging Islamic unity and solidarity among Muslims is a big public duty and mission and as two important neighbors, Tehran and Ankara can take constructive and effective steps in establishing of unity in the Islamic world.'
The president underlined the need for campaign against terrorism as a common danger and threat to all nations and said that foreign countries are not after drastic settlement of regional problems and only seek their own interests.
He added, 'So, we believe that regional problems should be solved by countries and nations of the region and undoubtedly, Iran-Turkey cooperation will play a constructive role in establishment of durable peace in the region.'
Emphasizing commonalities of Tehran and Ankara, he said, 'There is no difference of opinion between the two countries in terms of honoring territorial integrity of countries, any country's people deciding its fate, stopping war and bloodshed and rushing aid to refugees. Tehran and Ankara, sharing commonalty in the fields, can along with each other take serious and helpful steps towards step-by-step settlement of regional problems and issues.'
The president opined that today, many regional nations have pinned hope on mutual and multilateral cooperation so that Muslim countries will add up their capacity and potential to solve current problems.
He stressed that certain regional problems have not harmed Tehran-Ankara relations. 'There is no obstacle on the way of expansion of bilateral relations and today there is a suitable opportunity to make optimum use of potential available to expand bilateral ties in line with interests of the two nations.'
He also said that Tehran and Ankara enjoy many capacities for growing relations in various domains, especially in the transportation, energy, trade, joint investment, tourism, scientific and technological sectors and they are ready to start common cooperation in all the fields.
President Rouhani underlined further activation of Iran-Turkey Joint Cooperation Commission and hoped that compilation of operational mechanism in the near future will bring a new change in bilateral relations.
Davutoğlu for his part underlined the need for Tehran-Ankara regional cooperation to fight terrorism and said, 'As far as regional issues are concerned, we should join hands and stand the barbaric methods of the terrorist groups.'
He emphasized that Turkey is ready to have full cooperation with Iran in fighting terrorist groups in the region.
The Turkish prime minister said Turkey's foreign policy is based on respecting national sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-intervention of foreign countries, and right of people of countries to decide their fate.