Rodolfo Calò visited Mehr News Agency International Service and in an interview to Mehr News correspondents, Fereydoon Naemi and Masoumeh Zaare, detailed on the objectives behind the visit by Italian parliamentary delegation in the current week.
Calò assessed the diplomatic exchanges between Iran and Italy as being a will in part of Rome to improve Iran’s relations with the EU. “The visit by Italian parliamentary delegation was a positive event. The delegation comprising of both majority and minority Senate members, truly represented the whole political spectrum of Italy,” he added.
“As about the intentions of the visit, I would reiterate remarks by Pier Ferdinando Casini, the head of the delegation; to boost parliamentary relations between Iran and the EU,” he added.
Italy had played such a role in the past. In 1999, the path to improve the relations with the EU walked for the first time by Khatami’s visit to Italy, and now, the Italian delegation sought to revive that path, Calò was quoted to say.
“The visit by Italian foreign minister is justified on the same grounds. It indicates that Italy seeks to have an active and positive role in boosting EU-Iran relations,” Calò asserted. “Italy supports Iran and Powers nuclear deal,” he added.
“The economic relations of Iran and Italy are interesting in that Italy was only next to Germany in terms of economic partnership with Iran. Iranians and Italians enjoy great common cultural features. These all contribute to both counties rapprochement, and new chapters in cooperation,” Calò said.
He believed that Tehran was an important partner for Italy. “In recent months, we have different Italian visits to Iran including Emma Bonino, the foreign minister, and her deputy, Lapo Pistelli, and the present Parliamentary delegation headed by Pier Ferdinando Casini. This highlights the importance of Iran for Italy,” Calò believed.
He also believed that despite the misguided attempts by the Zionist lobbies to bring the negotiations to failure, the talks would continue, and Italy and others still supported the deal made in Geneva.
SH/ZK
MNA
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