Morocco's premier meets Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Moroccan premier, Aderrahmane Youssoufi, currently on a visit to Iran, met on Thursday with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the guide of the Islamic republic of Iran.
This is the first visit of the kind by a Moroccan official to Iran since the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised during the meeting Morocco's historic role in propagating Islam and the Kingdom solidarity with Islamic countries.
Youssoufi also visited several religious monuments in Iran, including the mausoleum of Imam Ali Reda, in Machhad, some 1,000 km northeast of Tehran.
He also visited the mausoleum 12-century old library that extends over 11,000 square meters and contains 45,000 manuscripts of the holy Koran. The library receives from 3,000 to 5,000 visitors per day.
On Wednesday, Youssoufi held two work sessions with Iranian first vice-president, Hassan Habibi, over means to promote bilateral relations and other issues of mutual concern.
On the same day, the prime minister held with speaker of the Choura council (parliament) a tete-a-tete meeting that was then enlarged to the Moroccan party, Iranian officials and parliamentarians.
Youssoufi also visited the mausoleum of the late Imam Khomeiny where he laid a wreath of flowers.
During his talks with Iranian officials, the Moroccan premier stressed that his visit is a new step in bilateral relations and highlighted the longstanding ties between the two Islamic countries that stem from Islamic solidarity and the need to establish a fruitful cooperation serving interests of the two peoples and of the Islamic nation.
At the economic level, cooperation is governed by a legal framework setting a joint commission, he said insisting on the need to prospect new investment opportunities and joint ventures by private capital.
According to Morocco's exchange office, Moroccan imports from Iran considerably grew in the last four years from 500 million DH ($ 47.6 mln) in 1996 to 2 billion DH ($ 190.4 mln) in the first six months of 2000. Exports, which did not exceed 314 million DH ($ 30 mln) in 1996, declined to 290 million DH ($ 27.6 mln) in 1998 and totaled 500 million DH ($ 47.6 mln) in the first six months of 2000.
