Iran Mideast’s Prominent Player: Portugal
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Portugal’s foreign minister hailed Iran as an influential country in the Middle East that can greatly contribute to the settlement of regional conflicts.
Iran is among the “most important players in the Middle East” which can help stabilize the situation and maintain calm and stability in the region, Rui Manuel Parente Chancerelle de Machete said in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on Monday.
The visiting Portuguese also pointed to the nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers, expressing the hope that diplomatic negotiations would soon bear fruits.
Machete further acknowledged that Iran is entitled to enjoy nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Iran’s top diplomat, for his part, said the European Union can play a “more active role” in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Iran and the Group 5+1 (alternatively known as the P5+1 or E3+3) are in talks to hammer out a final agreement to end more than a decade of impasse over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Zarif further emphasized the need for the expansion of cooperation between Tehran and Lisbon in tourism and closer ties between the two countries’ chambers of commerce.
He said Iran and Portugal’s private sectors can be the “engine” of economic cooperation between the two nations.
Back in October 2014, Zarif and Portugal’s Secretary of State of Culture Jorge Barreto Xavier discussed the ways to enhance cultural ties between Tehran and Lisbon.
The Portuguese minister had also proposed the idea that the two countries expand ties in the fields of tourism, film-making and art.