Iran, Algeria to Expand Trade Ties

An accord for preferential tariffs or free trade was one of the main subjects of discussions between Algeria's Ambassador and Iran's Minister of Commerce. Mehdi Ghazanfari said during the meeting, that Iran places a great importance to raising the level of relationship with the Islamic countires in face of recent stance of the Western countries vis-a-vis Iran. He also asserted the importance of sending private sector delegations from the business and agricutulure to expands ties further. "Algeria is the entry point of Iran into Africa and as such is very important to Iran." In turn, the Algerian Ambassador said that the amount of bilateral commercial ties between the countries needs to be raised. - Irna