Turkey and Iran seek to strengthen ties

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed Turkey's keenness to strengthen political, economic and commercial relations with neighboring countries as soon as possible.

In a statement Friday upon returning from a three-day visit to Tehran, Erdogan said " Boosting relations with neighbouring countries support peace in the region." Earlier, in a joint press conference in Tehran with Iran's First Vice-President Mohammad-Reza Aref, Erdogan said that Turkish-Iranian relations have been developed in political, economic, and cultural areas during the recent years.

For his part, Aref underlined that Iran and Turkey have a very close stances on key regional and international issues including the crises in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and the necessity of combating terrorism.