President Rouhani departed for Istanbul on Wednesday evening when he addressed briefly the reporters at the airport. He will join Mr. Mohmmad Javad Zarif who has already been to the city to participate in ministerial meeting of the OIC during Istanbul Summit of Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Rouhani highlighted terrorism and extremism, as important parts of his initiative WAVE in the UN which curried the favor of the General Assembly, as current pressing problems of Islamic world; “the Islamic Republic of Iran hopes that the Summit will open discussions to address issues of unity in the Islamic world and cooperation against terrorism; the Summit is important, since it brings together heads of states of Islamic countries,” he told reporters. “The Islamic world has been mired on terrorism and sectarianism along with violence and violation of integrity and borders of countries by other members of the Summit; addressing the rights of the Palestinians, improving Islamic unity, and other differences are among the important objectives of the Summit.”
Rouhani reiterated his WAVE initiative as Iran’s official policy for which the country had made itself committed to fight against terrorism; he invested much hope that Istanbul Summit would take serious steps to fight terrorism; “Iran has responded positively to any request for help in fight against terrorism especially in Iraq,” he added.
Rouhani’s agenda will include meetings with heads of states bilaterally; turning on Turkey itself, he said that his third day in Istanbul would be dedicated to bilateral meeting with Turkish officials; “Turkey as well, should use the opportunity by the implementation of JCPOA; we will discuss other regional and bilateral matters of interest with Turkish officials,” he told reporters.
SH/3598198