South African President Arrives in Iran.

Tehran, Apr 24 (Prensa Latina) South African President Jacob Zuma arrived in this capital Sunday, leading a delegation from his country, with 180 political and entrepreneur personalities, to reinforce the relations with Iran, including the fields of banking operations and trade.

President Zuma was officially received by his Iranian counterpart, Rouhani, shortly after he arrived in the first hours of Sunday at the Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran.

In the bilateral conversations, both statesmen explored the ways to consolidate the links in the economic, banking and commercial fields, and talked about the mutual interest to multiply the political consulting sessions on global topics and the cooperation in defense and security to fight terrorism.

As a conclusion both delegations signed several documents that had been prepared by experts from Tehran and Pretoria, in the economic field.

This same Sunday, the South African Finace Minister , Pravin Gordhan, his Iranian counteraert, Alí Tayyebnia, and the respective vice-ministers Hossein Amir Abddollahian, in charge of the Arab-African topics, and Nomaindia Mfeketo, met here in parallel to debate relative matters to their spheres.

Tayyyebnia and Gordhan were pronounced in favor to accelerate the process of relationships in the banking field, besides pleading to enlarge the links in other branches, and the Iranian pointed out that both states enjoy good cooperation level, even at the time in which the Persian nation was subjected to economic sanctions.

The new scenario is encouraging since January 16, when the sanctions were eliminated and the nuclear agreement that Iran signed in July 2015 with six world powers came into effect, Tayyebnia stated, when he expressed the hopes of promoting many bilateral initiatives.

He added that Teheran sees Pretoria as a door toward the African continent, and defined South Africa as the 'most important of that region', at the same time that he highlighted the positive steps given by Iranian banks to impel relationships with its South African counterparts.

Gordhan, for his part side, underlined that South Africa is certain to deepen the commercial and economic cooperation with Iran, and after the end of the sanctions it tries to renew the bank nexuses that - it pointed - are important to expand the commercial exchange. In turn, Amir Abdollahian recaptured with Mfeketo the conversations on Saturday and both insisted on increasing bilateral efforts to fix the crisis of Middle East and África by means of the political dialogue.

South Africa praises the Iranian postures before the matters related with Syria and Yemen, and it expresses them its support. It has also highlighted the necessity to find a political solution for the crises that whip to those countries', the Iranian Vice Minister for Cooperation and International Relationships commented.

Officially invited by Rouhani, Zuma and his delegation will leave on Monday Teheran to visit the historical county of Isfahán.

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Modificado el ( domingo, 24 de abril de 2016 )



Culled from Plenglish.