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Iran Security Accords With Italy Mark Another Landmark Step With West
by Kianouche Dorranie
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran took another landmark step Sunday toward expanding its relations with the West after concluding a series of security cooperation accords with Italy, already one of its key commercial partners.
Italian Interior Minister Enzo Bianco, making the first trip here by a European Union interior minister since the 1979 Islamic revolution, said the two sides had inked agreements on a number of security issues.
He and his Iranian counterpart Abdol-Vahed Mussavi-Lari announced the first-ever accords between Rome and Tehran on the fight against terrorism, drugs trafficking, organized crime and money laundering.
The ministers told a Tehran press conference they had also agreed to form a working committee to stem the flow of illegal Iranian immigrants into Italy, which has been stepping up its efforts to fight illegal aliens.
"We agreed on fixing a legal quota for Iranians who want to come work in Europe," Bianco said, stressing the heavy traffic of Iranian nationals into his country, many of whom are ultimately headed elsewhere in Europe.
"We will fight together against those organizations smuggling illegals into Europe," he said, adding that Italy would take the historic step of beginning to share security data with and train Iranian police.
He said he was also thoroughly briefed on "terrorist" acts by the Iranian opposition People's Mujahedeen, many of whose members are based in Europe, and pledged more Italian support for Iran's war on drugs trafficking.
The Italian minister also had fulsome praise for reformist Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, whose 1999 visit to Rome was a milestone in restoring Tehran's relations with Europe.
Khatami has worked hard since his 1997 election to buff up the image of Iran on the international stage, stressing a policy of detente and expanded commercial relations.
"We hope Iran will continue along its courageous path of reform," said Bianco, who met with the president as well as Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi.
Mussavi-Lari for his part hailed the "favorable climate" between the two nations.
Italy is Iran's second largest commercial partner in Europe after Germany and imports some $2 billion of Iranian petroleum products from the Islamic republic annually. Its exports to Tehran amount to about half that.
The Italian firm ENI has, meanwhile, played a key role in Iran's energy sector with a $3.8 billion development deal for the giant South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
Iran holds the second-largest natural gas reserves in the world behind Russia.
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