[caption id="attachment_152103" align="alignright" width="153"] Flags of Iran and Serbia[/caption]

BELGRADE – The year 2015 will be a significant year for enhancing the economic cooperation between Tehran and Belgrade, says Majid Fahimpour, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Serbia.

The Iranian and Serbian economies complement each other and, for that very reason, they can have good cooperation – Serbia is situated in a fertile region with high precipitation, and the Iranian market may be very interesting in terms of exports of Serbian agricultural products, the Iranian ambassador said in an interview to Tanjug.

He said that he met with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic last month and that they concluded that actions should speak louder than words in 2015 and that the economic cooperation should be boosted, including by exchanging a large number of planned official visits.

For the first time ever, Iran had a booth at last year’s International Fair of Tourism in Belgrade and will also showcase its tourism supply at this year’s iteration of the event, which opened on Thursday.

Serbian tour operators are very interested in Iran, Fahimpour said.

The economic cooperation between Iran and Serbia is dominated by light industry, auto parts, agriculture and, more recently, tourism, while cultural cooperation is on a traditionally high level.

The Iranian ambassador said that Serbian athletes and coaches are welcome in Iran and that they deserve much credit for the progress and development of sport in his country.

Commenting on the 38th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Fahimpour concluded that, despite the fact that few had believed that it would succeed and take hold, religious democracy in Iran has survived, leading to societal development based on the principles of independence and freedom.

Speaking about individuals and organisations propagating Islam while using terrorist methods to achieve their goals, the Iranian ambassador said that that is completely contrary to the Islamic religious teachings.

Radicalism has nothing to do with any divine religion whatsoever and what the terrorist groups are doing has nothing to do with Islam, he said.

The people who are doing that are problematic people who have issues with themselves and are trying to attribute that to Islam, even though it has nothing to do with Islam, the ambassador noted.

The word “Islam” means “peace”, “greeting” and “health” and, in its policy, Iran, as an Islamic country, has always adhered to the principle of moderation and always opposed extremism of any form, Fahimpour noted.

By In Serbia