Larijani Meets Counterparts at IPU Event

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani held talks with his counterparts on the sidelines of the 141st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in the Serbian capital Belgrade on Sunday to discuss mutual ties as well as regional issues. 
In his meeting with Chairman of Qatar's Consultative Assembly Ahmed bin Abdullah al-Mahmud, Larijani called for efforts to promote unity among Muslim countries at a time when the region is experiencing heightened tensions. 
"The situation in the region is volatile … Other countries interfere in the region and some regional states create problems and drain the energy of Islamic countries," he was quoted as saying by ISNA. 
Larijani stressed that political dialogue, and not military action, is key to resolving differences in the region. 
"Just as military action in Syria did not work, it will not work elsewhere either. It only caused damage to the Syrian people and it was the same in the case of Yemen," he said. 
Al-Mahmoud said Qatar's policies have always been focused on dialogue and negotiation. 
"We are responsible to future generations—about whether they will be in peace or at war," he said. 
Larijani also met Algerian Parliament Speaker Slimane Chenine who stressed the need to expand trade ties between Tehran and Algiers.
"Banking sanctions on Iran can pose an obstacle to such cooperation, so I suggest we think of solutions to remove these hurdles," he said. 
Iran is currently under sanctions reimposed by the United States after it withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal last year. 
In a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart, Nurlan Nigmatulin, Iran's top lawmaker called for simplifying visa procedures to help expand tourism and business ties between the two countries. 
He also said the Iranian Parliament is currently reviewing a government bill on the convention on the legal status of Caspian Sea. 
Nigmatulin said Kazakhstan is interested in improving cooperation between Iranian and Kazakh legal, political and economic organizations. 
"The required infrastructure needs to be created to resolve banking problems," he said. 
The Kazakh speaker also noted that ratification of the Caspian convention would have positive results. 
The Caspian treaty was signed in August 2018 by the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan, and is pending the ratification of their parliaments.