TEHRAN – Iran’s Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has said that Tehran and Baku should focus their attention on efforts to expand economic relations.

Larijani, who is in Azerbaijan on a three-day visit, made the remarks in a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on Friday.

He described political relations between the two countries as satisfactory but added Tehran and Baku need to further increase their economic cooperation.

Iran’s Majlis is ready to help the two countries improve their interactions and that a higher level of interaction between the two countries’ parliaments will be effective to that end.

For his part, Aliyev described relations between the two countries as fraternal and said Azerbaijan is pleased with the fact that Iran’s Leader has managed the country and put it on the path of progress.

He went on to say that Iran-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral meetings should continue and that regular talks between their officials will help strengthen relations.

Tehran welcomes Tehran-Ankara-Baku trilateral conference

In a separate meeting with Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Oktay Asadov on Friday, Larijani proposed that a trilateral meeting between Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, which was suggested by Aliyev, will be held in Nakhjavan.

“I consider (holding) this meeting as a right thing to do… most of these regional issues will be resolved through regional meetings,” he stated.

On Iran-Azerbaijan ties, Larijani said he expects that greater steps will be taken to increase cooperation between the two countries.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he pointed to U.S. deployment of troops in Afghanistan under the pretext of fight against terrorism, saying unfortunately the situation in this country has deteriorated over the past 10 years.

He said the region is now facing two major problems namely terrorism and illegal drugs.

“Even in Karabakh we see that major governments have made the situation more complicated through serving their own interests,” he added.

On terrorism, he said, “We know that there are terrorists like Taliban in the region that have become stronger with the U.S. support.”

Pointing to the developments in the Middle East and North Africa, he said the developments can be reviewed from two angles: the people who can no longer tolerate dictators and adventurism by the West to hijack or derail the popular uprisings.

Asadov also said Iran-Azerbaijan ties are historical and thus the existence of cultural and religious affinities will help the two countries strengthen the relations.

He told Larijani, “It is true that you have a short journey (to here), but you are noticing the progress of Baku and it is natural that this development would have been greater if some problems, including Karabakh’s, had been nonexistent.”

“20 percent of Azerbaijan’s lands have been occupied and millions of people have been displaced during the occupation of Karabakh… we have the capability to, in addition to peace talks, resolve the issue but we hope that this crisis will be resolved through talks,” he noted.

“We are sure that Iran will support Azerbaijan at international level,” the top lawmaker stated.