Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, in a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, underlined the need for both countries to strengthen their cooperation in transportation and other sectors. He also called on Tehran and Ankara to coordinate closely to defend the rights of the oppressed Palestinians.
President Rouhani, who was in Istanbul to take part in an emergency OIC summit on Palestine, stressed: "More frequent consultations and closer ties between Tehran and Ankara would benefit both nations."
Rouhani said the holding of the OIC summit under current sensitive conditions of the region indicated the attention of Muslim states to the issue of occupied Palestine.
Elsewhere in his remarks, president Rouhani referred to America's unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terming it as a blatant violation of international regulations on the part of the US administration.
Iran and Turkey have always stood, and will always stand, by each other under various conditions, Rouhani said.
Turkish President, for his part, lauded Iran's effective participation in the OIC extraordinary meeting, and said officials of both countries have taken positive steps towards broadening mutual relations.
Describing Iran-Turkey consultations on regional issues and their efforts to strengthen security and stability in the region as 'important', Erdogan said many measures taken by the US administration such as its unilateral pullout from the JCPOA and relocation of embassy from Tel Aviv to Quds are not legitimate or acceptable to other countries of the world.
'If we resist these acts we will get positive results,' Turkish President added.
OIC emergency meeting ended late Friday by issuing a statement calling for setting up a committee to deal with the Zionists’ crimes in the occupied lands.
The statement called on major international bodies such as Security Council, UN secretary general, Human Rights Council and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to immediately set up a committee to probe Zionists' crimes in the occupied lands.
The statement said that illegal recognition of al-Quds as the capital of the occupying regime of Israel by the US is invalid, describing it an attack on the historic, national, natural and legal rights of the Palestinian nation.
Following the US provocative move in relocating its embassy from Tel Aviv to Quds tens of thousands of Palestinians protested the move that were suppressed brutally by the Israeli forces.
At least 62 Palestinians were martyred and some 3,000 others injured by live fire or other lethal means.
