Tehran, Iran, November 26
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
A new agreement between Iran, Turkey, and Qatar over trade cooperation can be seen as an extension to the resistance front that started in the region and recently succeeded in bringing the Syrian crisis closer to its end, an expert believes.
On November 26, the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding to ease transit cooperation. Qatari Minister of Economy Ahmed bin Jassim al Thani, Iranian Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari, and Economy Minister of Turkey Nihat Zeybekci were party to the agreement.
This is reminiscent of the recent victory of the resistance front, as recognized by Iran, which included Iran and Turkey, as well as Russia, in defeating Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) in Syria and contributing to a peace process in the Arab country, Siamak Darabi told Trend.
He mentioned that over the past months Qatar has been in dispute with Saudi Arabia and some other Arab states, all of which, along with the US, used to support the opposite side to Syrian President Bashar Assad, which is backed by Iran and Russia.
While in Tehran, al Thani told Shariatmadari that Qatar wanted to increase the level of trade between the two countries five times.
Shariatmadari said the current level of annual trade between the two countries stood at below $1 billion, emphasizing that Doha had informed Tehran through al Thani about a proposal to increase this to as high as $5 billion per year.
Saudi Arabia and its allies including the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar in early June over charges that it supports terrorism. They have accordingly imposed a land, sea and air blockade against Qatar thus leaving only a sea and air corridor open with Iran.
This created a rise in Turkey and Iran’s exports – particularly fruits and vegetables – to Qatar over the past months. Iran has also become a corridor for exports of other countries to the blockaded Persian Gulf state.