Press TV- Iran’s foreign minister says Tehran and Beijing have common views on issues of global significance, saying there are no obstacles in the way of the expansion of bilateral ties.


Mohammad Javad Zarif made the remarks in Beijing on Monday, meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. The Iranian top diplomat arrived in the Chinese capital earlier in the day at the head of a large high-ranking political and economic delegation following a two-day visit to India.

Zarif praised Tehran-China relations as warm and strong, saying Iran is ready to align itself with China in all areas as the two nations have mutual interests and a common approach towards international affairs.

The officials billed a January visit to Iran by Chinese President Xi Jinping as historical. The two-day trip featured an agreement between the countries on strategic ties and the signing of 17 cooperation documents.

The Chinese official, for his part, said his country supported Iran’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) regional security group, where the Islamic Republic is currently an observer member.

The two sides also laid emphasis on the need to fight terrorism on the global arena.

They further reminded that all parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear accord signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries -- the US, Britain, Russia, France and China plus Germany -- last year, had to observe their contractual obligations.

Wang said the JCPOA is a multilateral agreement endorsed by the UN Security Council, whose implementation should not be affected by any of the countries’ domestic developments.

He was referring to a recent US Congress vote to extend Washington’s Iran Sanctions Act (ISA), a move Tehran has slammed as a violation of last year’s nuclear deal.

The top Iranian and Chinese diplomats are to attend a joint presser later in the day.