Seyyed Kazem Sajjadi, the deputy Iranian foreign minister for consular, parliamentary and Iranians’ affairs, has sat down with Andrei Savinykh, the chairman of the International Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus at the Iranian embassy in Minsk, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reported on its official website.
Seyyed Kazem Sajjadi, the deputy Iranian foreign minister for consular, parliamentary and Iranians’ affairs, has sat down with Andrei Savinykh, the chairman of the International Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus at the Iranian embassy in Minsk.
In the meeting, the Iranian official underlined cordial relations between the two countries as well as both sides’ willingness to enhance bilateral ties on different political, economic and parliamentary diplomacy fronts.
Sajjadi also called on the Belarusian parliamentarian to help save the lives of Iranian nationals stranded along Belarus’ borders with Lithuania and Poland.
Sajjadi said Iran’s policy is to offer all-out support to its nationals.
“The Belarusian government and authorities are expected to act responsibly and care about the lives of Iranians caught in bitter cold along that country’s border with Lithuania and Poland, and help the embassy offer humanitarian services such as providing them with blankets and warm food and help those who would like to return to their homeland,” the Iranian official noted.
Sajjadi said he, his accompanying delegation and Iran’s ambassador to Belarus are all ready to inspect Belarus’s borders with Lithuania and Poland in order to help Iranians stranded in cold.
He asked the Belarusian official to tap into all his potential and resources to ward off a humanitarian catastrophe.
Savinykh, in turn, touched upon the close ties between the two countries and added his government attaches great importance to maintaining and expanding those relations.
He also expressed regret over the current situation.
He said some groups tempt individuals and drag them into a complex and difficult situation.
He stressed that all countries and governments should abide by international laws and regulations.
Savinykh said he will use all his power and potential to solve the current problem.
The meeting between the two officials came few days after Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian held a telephone conversation with his Belarus counterpart Vladimir Maki on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation of Iranian nationals who are in trouble on the border between Belarus and Lithuania.
In the phone call, Amir-Abdolhian called for the humanitarian cooperation of the Belarusian consular and border authorities to find and provide medical assistance to these individuals and facilitate the Iranian embassy's access to them to return them to their country.
KI/MFA