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On November 1, the members of the RA MA Armenia-Iraq Friendship Group Arman Saghatelyan, Shirak Torosyan, Aram Sargsyan, Rustam Makhmudyan and Arsen Mikhailov met with the members of the delegation led by the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Abdelbari Al-Zibari, including the abovementioned Committee members, as well as the members of Iraq-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Welcoming the Iraqi colleagues, Arman Saghatelyan touched upon the Armenian-Iraqi relations and expressed conviction and the visit of the delegation will be a new impetus to develop and deepen the friendly relations between the two countries, which during three years had gone upwards. Mr Saghatelyan has touched upon the bilateral relations and underlined with satisfaction that the trade-economic ties are rather active between Armenia and Iraq, though there is great potential for developing it. He has also noted that the two countries effectively cooperate in the spheres of information technologies and tourism, and the development of air communication has promoted to it. Mr Saghatelyan informed the guests that as a result of Constitutional amendments the representatives of four national minorities in Armenia received parliamentary mandates in the Armenian Parliament.

Talking about the regional problems, the interlocutors highlighted the region being stable and predictable, considered necessary the settlement of the conflicts through peaceful means. the fighting against terrorism was emphasized.

In this context Shirak Torosyan has touched upon the issue of the NK conflict settlement and has noted that Azerbaijan by all means with its aggressive policy tries to fail the peaceful settlement of the problem within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, even moving it to religious plane. Mr Torosyan has stated that Armenia has warm and friendly with numerous countries of the region, especially the Arab countries. In response to that, the Head of the delegation Abdelbari Al-Zibari presented the viewpoint of Iraq, according to which, it is necessary to solve such conflicts through peaceful means, but not in military way.

The members of the RA NA Armenia-Iraq Friendship Group Arsen Mikhailov, Aram Sargsyan and Rustam Makhmudyan also highlighted the development of the Armenian-Iraqi relations and the strengthening of the inter-parliamentary ties, talked about the opportunities of the development of the trade-economic relations.

Rustam Makhmudyan referred to the crimes committed towards the Yezidis in 2014 and urged his Iraqi colleagues to support in order the displaced Yezidis would have opportunity to return to their homelands.

Thanking for the reception, the Head of the delegation Abdelbari Al-Zibari highlighted such meetings in terms of both deepening of the relations and exchange of experience in different issues. He, as well as the members of the delegation, emphasized the necessity of deepening the cooperation in the trade-economic, cultural and educational spheres. Both sides attached importance to the encouragement of investments and the development of multi-sphere cooperation and the strengthening of the inter-parliamentary ties.

At the meeting the participants touched upon the Armenian community in Iraq and highly assessed their role in the public life.