Iranian official calls for better cooperation against terrorism

An Iranian lawmaker has called for better cooperation between Turkey and Iran against terrorism, which he said requires "a serious fight, regardless of where it is staged," as he surprisingly hailed growing relations between the nations with the hope that Iran and Turkey would fulfill their true potential in the future. "Our true potential exceeds what we currently make of it. Relations are good, but they could be better," the head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, told the Anatolian news agency yesterday before he departed for a visit to Turkey, where he will meet with Turkish officials and discuss bilateral and regional relations later in the day. Boroujerdi spoke of great opportunities ahead for Iran and Turkey, suggesting that the countries had more common than diverging interests. Boroujerdi yesterday met with President Abdullah Gul in Ankara and had a meeting with the chairperson of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Volkan Bozkır, with whom he discussed bilateral relations between the countries and ways of countering terrorism and illegal drug trafficking. The Iranian official, speaking to reporters after his meeting with Bozkır, also noted that the foreign trade volume between Turkey and Iran stood at $12 billion, and that it would reach $15 billion by the end of the year, as he expressed that the two countries would like to see that figure at $30 billion next year.