IRAN BACKS VISA-FREE REGIME WITH ARMENIA
http://asbarez.com/119502/iran-backs-visa-free-regime-with-armenia/
Wednesday, February 12th, 2014
Iran's Ambassador to Armenia, Mohammad Reisi
YEREVAN (Combined Sources)--Iran and Armenia may soon lift visa
requirements for their citizens travelling to each other's country,
according to the Iranian ambassador in Yerevan, Mohammad Reisi,
RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) reports.
In an interview with the ArmNews TV channel aired this week, Reisi also
announced that Iranian President Hassan Rohani will travel to Armenia
later this year on an official visit that will underscore close ties
between the two neighboring states. "The visit will take place in
the course of this year," he said without specifying a concrete date.
President Serzh Sarkisian was among a dozen foreign heads of state who
attended Rohani's inauguration in Tehran last August. The two leaders
held separate talks following the ceremony. Rohani was reported
to tell Sarkisian that the Islamic Republic is keen to expand its
"deeply-rooted" ties with Armenia.
Rohani's controversial predecessor, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, paid
an official visit to Yerevan in late 2011. It focused, in large
measure, on the implementation of Armenian-Iranian energy projects
that had fallen behind schedule. Those include the construction of a
hydro-electric plant on the Arax river serving as the Armenian-Iranian
border.
Reisi implied that Rohani's visit will come after the next meeting
of an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on economic
cooperation. He said the commission should discuss not only the energy
projects but also ambitious plans to build a railway connecting the
two countries.
"The best indicator of Armenian-Iranian mutual trust is that the visa
regime between the two states may well be abolished," Reisi added in
the ArmNews interview. "In order to facilitate contacts between the
two peoples, we have communicated to the Armenian side our readiness
to put in place a visa-free regime."
Tehran has long been seeking visa-free travel between Armenia and
Iran. Successive Armenian governments have been lukewarm about
the idea.
The existing visa requirements have not prevented a sharp rise in the
number of Iranian tourists visiting Armenia over the past decade. It
reached a record-high level of more than 100,000 in 2011.
"I hope that one day one million Iranian tourists will visit Armenia,"
then Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said during a November
2011 trip to Yerevan. "I also hope that one day a visa-free regime
will be established between the two countries and crossing our border
will be as easy as travelling inside our countries."
Efforts to Reduce Arax River Pollution In a meeting on Wednesday,
Iran's energy minister and Armenia's minister of environmental
protection agreed to step up joint efforts to monitor and reduce
water pollution in the Arax River, Tasnim news agency reported.
The Iranian capital of Tehran hosted Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian
and the visiting Armenian Minister of Environmental Protection Aram
Harutyunian, who discussed a range of environmental issues, including
active cooperation to tackle pollution in the River Arax.
The rising pollution levels in the border river have been blamed mainly
on discharge of untreated waste from an Armenian copper factory into
the river's water.
In the meeting, the two ministers, accompanied by their senior
advisers, decided that Iran and Armenia should put efforts into
monitoring water pollution in Arax and take measures to stop the
discharge of toxic waste from the copper factory into the river.