Lebanon for Broadening Ties

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati pledged to do his utmost to lift obstacles to implementation of agreements between his country and Iran.

In a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Roknabadi, Mikati said he has had a ‘positive and useful’ meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York on the sidelines of the 67th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, Press TV reported.

Roknabadi said implementation of economic cooperation agreements between Iran and Lebanon was of special significance to both sides. He announced that Tehran is hosting an Iran-Lebanon seminar to introduce its economic and investment opportunities in near future.

Referring to a recent visit by a delegation of experts from Iran’s Oil Ministry and its subsidiaries to Lebanon, Roknabadi called for the quick implementation of agreements for transmission of electricity from Iran to Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Industry Minister Vrej Sabonjian said that Iranian companies are the top priorities for conducting industrial projects in Lebanon.

In a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Beirut, he said Lebanon is ready to use Iranian expertise in planning industrial townships.

Roknabadi, for his part, pointed to Iran’s special exhibition which was successfully held in Lebanon last June. He hoped that Iran’s second specialized-industrial exhibition will be held in Beirut by the end of current Iranian year (in March 2013) with the participation of over 100 Iranian firms.

Iranian ambassador disclosed that the seminar on introducing trade opportunities of Iran and Lebanon will be held in Tehran in mid November. He invited Sabonjian to take part in the seminar.

Earlier, Roknabadi and Lebanese Economy Minister Nicolas Nahas discussed ways of enhancing bilateral economic relations between the two countries.

He invited Nahas to participate in November seminar at the head of a delegation of representatives from Lebanese private sector. Roknabadi added that 500 top Iranian commercial and economic companies will attend the seminar.

Nahas for his part expressed Lebanon’s readiness to take part in the important economic event. During the meeting, the status of the agreements signed between the two countries and implementation of Iranian projects in Lebanon, particularly electricity transfer from Iran to Lebanon, were also discussed.