TEHRAN— Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, government spokesman Ali Bahadori Jahromi announced on Tuesday.

“Preliminary plans have been made in this regard,” Bahadori Jahromi told reporters.

The annual UN conference will be held in September. It will be Raisi’s second visit to New York to attend the largest international conference as he enters his second year of his presidency. Raisi started his work in August 2021.

Bahadori Jahromi also said in the negotiations between Tehran and Kabul over fulfilling Iran’s water rights from the Helmand River, the Afghan side accepted Iran's right based on the 1973 agreement and acknowledged it.

However, the spokesman added, now there is a dispute over the amount of water that should flow into Iran.

“There are also some technical problems, which the Islamic Republic is seriously following up on,” he stated.

“A report was presented in this regard in the cabinet meeting, and the energy minister will soon visit Afghanistan. One of the most important parts of his agenda is to pursue Iran's water rights and realize it,” Bahadori Jahromi underscored.

On Iran's water rights from the Aras River, the spokesman also said a similar report was presented in the cabinet meeting, and this issue was also raised in the conversation between the presidents of Iran and Turkey.

“The Turkish side agreed to hold a meeting at the ministerial level on this matter and the government also insists on following this path,” he added.

Iran-China cooperation document is being implemented

The spokesman also faced a question on the implementation of 25-year strategic cooperation plan between Iran and China to which he responded that the document has entered the operational phase, and one of the main points of President Raisi’s recent telephone conversation with his Chinese counterpart was expressing satisfaction over the progress of implementing the plan.

Pointing to the volume of trade ties between Iran and China, Bahadori Jahromi said, “In the first 4 months of the (Iranian calendar) year, the value of exports to China has grown by 27 percent compared to the same period last year, and we have seen a 43 percent increase in foreign trade with this country. In 2021, our exports to China grew by 58% and in the agricultural sector, there was a jump of 45%.”