Croatia and Iran Firm Relations With Ministerial Visit to Teheran

Croatia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić started her official visit to Iran on the weekend with a meeting with the vice president in charge of environmental protection, Masoumeh Ebtekar…

“I believe that Iran-Croatia bilateral cooperation will intensify, notably in environmental protection, but in other areas of mutual interests as well,” said Ebtekar, adding that “Croatia has very strict environmental protection laws and Iran should have better environmental protection standards, notably because of the big number of vehicles in Iranian cities, but also because of the growing industry.”

Speaking about the Iranian society, Ebtekar said that women were growing increasingly more prominent in various areas of public life.

“This is the right time to intensify bilateral relations given the positive tradition or relations between our societies,” said Pusić. She said Iran was important for Europe in the political and the security sense and that Croatia, as a member of the European Union, strongly supported the efforts both sides, P5+1 and Iran, were investing to ensure a successful completion of the nuclear negotiations.

Ebtekar and Pusić also discussed the situation in the Middle East and the danger of terrorism. Ebtekar briefed Pusić about Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s initiative to create an alliance against extremism and violence. She said terrorists had nothing to do with Islam and religion although, unfortunately, they used it for their purposes, creating a rift between Muslims and Christians as well as between societies.

Pusić also met with Iran’s vice president in charge of women and family affairs, Shahindokht Molaverdi, again discussing the fight against terrorism and extremism. Molaverdi said Iran had a strong will to successfully complete the nuclear negotiations and that it hoped the other side had the same will.

Pusić said she was pleased that the first two meetings on her first visit had been with women. She talked about Croatia’s development aid primarily aimed at girls and women’s education, which then leads to employment opportunities. Molaverdi underlined that girls and women’s education was important for a country’s security and stability as well, hopeful that Iran and Croatia would work on that type of projects and expressing interest in Croatia’s legislature regarding family. (Source / Ministry of Foreign Affairs)