TEHRAN - Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, newly-elected speaker of the Iranian parliament, said on Friday that cooperation between Iran and Turkey is important to establish and promote long-lasting peace and security in the region.

In a phone conversation with Turkish Parliamentary Speaker Mustafa Sentop, Ghalibaf also said Iran attaches great importance to unity among Islamic countries to counter plots by the Zionist regime of Israel.

He also called for expansion of relations between the two countries, especially in economic area.

The new parliament speaker also highlighted the importance of continuing the Astana talks on Syria.

In line with their security cooperation, Iran, Turkey, and Russia - three power brokers in Syria - launched the Astana peace talks on the Syrian conflict. The talks were launched in January 2017 with the aim of putting an end to the Syrian war.

Kazakhstan has hosted multiple rounds of talks on Syria since January 2017 most of which involved delegations from the Syrian government and opposition.

Sentop invites Ghalibaf to visit Turkey

Sentop, for his part, congratulated Ghalibaf on his election as the parliament speaker and invited him to visit Turkey.

He called for expansion of relations in various spheres.

In an open session on Thursday, the new Iranian lawmakers elected Ghalibaf, a former mayor of Tehran, as the new speaker of the parliament.

Ghalibaf secured 230 votes out of a total of 264 votes cast to become the speaker, followed by Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani with 17 votes, and Mostafa Mirsalim – a candidate in the 2017 presidential elections – with 12 votes.

The new parliament started its work on Wednesday with President Hassan Rouhani, Judiciary Chief Hojatoleslam Seyed Ebrahim Raeisi, and Secretary of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati in attendance.

NA/PA