MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Iranian and Turkish lawmakers believe it is important to cooperate with their Russian counterparts in order to resolve the Syrian crisis, including the refugee issue.
"It was an unprecedented meeting," Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said on Wednesday, following a meeting with members of the Russian State Duma (the lower house of parliament). "We, the three countries’ parliament members, came together for the first time to discuss regional issues. The need to resist unilateral actions was one of the things on which we all agreed," he added.
"As for Syria, it was a good start," Falahatpisheh went on to say. "We highlighted the need to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity, which includes the Golan Heights. We support the Syrian political process and efforts to establish a Syrian constitutional committee," he added.
The senior Iranian lawmaker was also hopeful that such meetings would expand in the future. "We hope that it will be a good beginning and members of regional affairs committees from other countries will join our work," he said.
Historic step
The Turkish Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee head Volkan Bozkir, in turn, described the meeting as historic. "While the world is engulfed in flames, and countries, alliances and blocs are collapsing, we managed to gather together to confirm our readiness to make agreements and cooperate," he said, adding that "it is a very important historic step."
According to Bozkir, the meeting’s focus was on the situation in Syria and "the need to preserve its territorial integrity, all of its historic territory, as well as democratic governance." "We hope that more countries, which are interested in bringing stability to the region, will join this process so we will be able to pave the way for the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland," the Turkish lawmaker emphasized.
Russia’s State Duma hosted the meeting between members of the parliamentary committees for foreign affairs of Russia, Iran and Turkey earlier on Wednesday. Russia’s delegation was led by State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee head Leonid Slutsky and Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev. The meeting’s participants plan to hold such meetings at least twice a year.