Iran, New Zealand Keen to Expand Ties

(FNA)- Iranian and New Zealand's officials in a meeting in Tehran underlined the need for the further expansion of bilateral ties.

During the meeting in the Iranian capital on Sunday, Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and New Zealand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully explored avenues for bolstering and reinvigorating mutual cooperation.

"The expansion of ties between Iran and New Zealand would serve the two countries' interests," Hashemi Rafsanjani said during the meeting.

The New Zealand foreign minister, for his part, pointed to the status quo of Iran-New Zealand relations, and said, "I hope the two countries will further strengthen their bilateral ties."

Meantime, McCully referred to Iran's role in regional and international equations, and said, "Iran can use its capacities to put an end to the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq."

New Zealand has had an embassy in Tehran since April 1975, making it the country’s longest-standing mission in the Middle East.

In April, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a meeting with New Zealand's Ambassador to Iran Eamon O'Shaughnessy underlined the need for the broadening of Tehran-Wellington ties.

“Iran and New Zealand’s favorable capacities for the all-out development of relations, specially in trade and economic sectors, are among the very fertile grounds for the development of cooperation between the two countries,” Zarif said during the meeting in Tehran.