Iran, Afghanistan to Increase Cooperation in Air Transportation

Deputy Head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization for Aviation and International Affairs Mohammad Khodakarami said on Tuesday that the Iranian and Afghan aviation officials are scheduled to meet in the near future to study ways to increase mutual cooperation in air transportation field.

The meeting will take place in line with an agreement signed in 2003 by the two countries' aviation officials  and to meet airlines’ demands for increased flights between the two countries’ cities, especially Iran’s holy Mashhad City, he added.

He said there are currently 15 regular weekly flights between the two countries, whose number will reach 36 after the agreement between the two sides.

Earlier in December 2013, presidents of Iran and Afghanistan had issued a joint statement, commissioning foreign ministers of both countries to come up with a comprehensive friendship and cooperation pact which would guarantee long-term mutual interests of the two neighboring nations.

In a meeting with his Afghan counterpart at the time, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had stressed the sense of "good neighborliness and fraternity" between the two countries and said his administration places emphasis on developing relations with all of Iran’s neighbors, particularly the Muslim state of Afghanistan, and believes that the welfare and security of the Afghan people can contribute to regional cooperation.