UAE President Voices Readiness for All-Out Cooperation with Iran

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayid Al-Nahayan, in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, announced that his country is ready for all-out cooperation with Iran.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is an important country and it is closer to us than everyone else,” Sheikh Khalifa said, and underlined that the United Arab Emirates is ready to expand bilateral relations with Iran.
According to FNA, the UAE president stressed the need for increasing exchange of visits between the two countries’ officials in a move to further consolidate the two states’ bilateral, regional and international ties and cooperation, and said, “I emphasize that all Emirati officials and concerned bodies should do whatever they can to consolidate these relations.”
The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, said Tehran deems as important expansion of the relations with the UAE, and expressed the hope that the two states could “reinforce and institutionalize mutual cooperation by managing their relations and utilizing the existing opportunities and potentials”.
Iran attaches importance to the strengthening of its ties with the Middle Eastern countries. The Iranian foreign minister has repeatedly announced in the last few weeks that Iran prioritizes its relations with the regional and neighboring states, specially the Persian Gulf littoral countries, in its foreign policy.