Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The Islamic Republic hailed the recent parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan held with high voter turnout.

Marzieh Afkham, Iranian foreign ministry’s spokeswoman said on November 6 that Iran stands ready to cooperate with the newly elected parliament of Azerbaijan, IRNA news agency quoted her as saying.

She added that Iran hopes to develop relations with Azerbaijan’s new parliament.

Afkham went on to congratulate the government and people of Azerbaijan with the election of a new parliament.

Azerbaijan held its parliamentary election on November 1. As many as 767 candidates ran for 125 seats in the country’s parliament. The election was monitored by 503 international observers from 40 organizations and over 66,000 local observers.

Following the election, many foreign observers, analysts and experts pointed out the transparency, openness and smooth voting process at the election, as well as high voter turnout.

After Azerbaijan gained independence in 1991, Iran was among the first countries that established diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan. Since then, political relations between the two countries have developed tremendously.

Azerbaijan and Iran are focused on expanding economic ties in various fields, including industry, agriculture, energy, alternative energy, and transportation.

In 2014, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $186.6 million.

Iran's export to Azerbaijan during the first half of 2015 decreased 55.36 percent to $42.52 million year-on-year. Azerbaijan's export to Iran also decreased 67.11 percent to $11.16 million during that period.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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