TEHRAN – Iran and Syria signed 15 cooperation documents during the visit of a high-ranking Iranian delegation headed by President Ebrahim Raisi to the Arab country.

The signed documents included a comprehensive roadmap for strategic and long-term cooperation between the two countries as well as 14 other agreements and memorandums of understanding (MOU) on collaboration in various areas.

Three MOUs on boosting trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, a memorandum to expand cooperation in the field of information and communications technology (ICT), two MOUs on establishing joint banking and insurance and sending 50,000 Iranian pilgrims to Damsucs were among the signed documents.

In response to an official invitation by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, President Raisi made an official two-day visit to the Syrian Arab Republic on Wednesday and Thursday (May 3-4, 2023) and discussed ways to expand and strengthen bilateral relations with the country's top officials.

Four ministers, the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Raisi’s chief of staff, and his chief political advisor accompanied him during the visit to Syria.

Upon his arrival back in Tehran, Raisi said the trip was a turning point in the expansion of economic, trade, political, and security relations between the two nations.

Speaking in a press conference after his trip to Syria, the president said Iran and Syria have good potential and many great common fields for cooperation with each other in order to enhance the level of economic and trade relations.

"In the several meetings I had with Mr. Assad, mainly economic and trade issues and the using the mutual potentials and capabilities of the two countries were discussed," the president said.

According to Raisi cooperation in various fields including energy production and distribution, facilitating economic and commercial cooperation, reducing trade tariffs between the two countries to zero, strengthening and expanding transit between Iran, Iraq, and Syria, Iran's assistance to revive Syria's agricultural, industrial and energy capacities after the war and facilitating pilgrimages between the two countries were also among the topics of the signed documents between the two countries.

In late April, Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash traveled to Syria at the head of a high-ranking delegation and was welcomed by Syrian Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Mohammad Samer al-Khalil.

Bazrpash and Samer al-Khalil co-chair Iran-Syria Joint Economic Committee.

During the two-day stay in Syria, the two countries’ officials discussed the ways for the expansion of economic relations between the two countries.

In a meeting between Bazrpash and the entrepreneurs of Syria, participated by Syrian Minister of Public Works and Housing Suhail Abdul Latif, Transport Minister Zouhair Khazim, and Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Mohammad Samer al-Khalil, the two sides explored the ways for strengthening bilateral economic relations, and the Iranian minister announced the increase of interactions between the two countries in various fields, including the activation of free zones and the reduction of transit tariffs, giving priority to the field of tourism and the development of transportation corridors.

Emphasizing the strengthening of economic relations between Iran and Syria, the Iranian minister announced the talks between the officials of the two countries to expand economic relations in the maritime and rail sectors, facilitate bank transactions and reduce free trade tariffs.

Iran and Syria have been taking major steps for the expansion of their mutual trade ties. The two sides have exchanged numerous trade delegations and Iranian private companies are investing in various fields of the Syrian economy like providing construction materials especially cement and working on several reconstruction projects.

EF/MA

Photo: Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Ehsan Khandouzi Minister (L) and Syrian Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Mohammad Samer al-Khalil sign economic co-op MOU in the presence of the two countries’ presidents