Iran invites Turkey to coop

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says there is room for cooperation between the county and Turkey towards helping the regional states create peace and democracy. Ahmadinejad made the remarks during a telephone conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, IRNA reported. The Iranian president said that the two sides are bound by historical responsibility to assist the countries of the region in materializing freedom and democracy without foreign interference. Ahmadinejad expressed gratitude to Erdogan for him having voiced opposition to the US-led Western alliance of NATO's military invasions, saying that the foreign meddling in regional matters only exacerbated the state of affairs. Erdogan, for his part, called for more interaction between the two countries, noting that Tehran and Ankara could take effective measures towards resolving the regional issues. Earlier in the week, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a meeting with Iran's Ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hosseinpour that the two sides had converging viewpoints on the regional issues. Bozdag said that his country attached great importance to 'Iran's viewpoints on the region,' adding that the two countries had to develop their ties in all areas, including religious and parliamentary relations.