Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has met with the head and members of a Croatian parliamentary delegation, who are visiting Tehran. During the meeting, Amirabdollahian touched on the talks and consultations between officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Croatia over the past months and expressed willingness for the expansion of ties between the two countries. Amirabdollahian also highlighted the influential place of parliamentary diplomacy and the balanced foreign policy of the 13th administration, noting that the Islamic Republic of Iran has no limitation concerning ties with the Republic of Croatia and the parliaments of the two countries have an important role to play in propping up mutual ties. The Iranian foreign minister described upgrading trade and economic ties between the two countries as significant and expressed hope that the fifth meeting of the joint economic commission of Iran and Croatia will be held soon. A briefing on the latest negotiations for removal of oppressive sanctions and Iran’s principled stance in this regard was among other topics raised during the meeting of the Croatian parliamentary delegation with the Iranian foreign minister. During the meeting, head of the parliamentary friendship group Zlatko Hasanbegovic hailed the visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran along with members of the group and his meetings with Iranian officials. He said the Islamic Republic of Iran was the first Asian country to recognize the independence of Croatia and this is a golden page in the history of Croatia’s diplomacy and the record of ties between the two countries. He said that the purpose of the visit by the Croatian parliamentary delegation is discussing expansion of relations between the two countries and exchanging views on the subject with Iranian officials. The Croatian parliamentary delegation touched on the old record of ties between the Iranian and Croatian nations and their numerous cultural commonalities and expressed their readiness to support expansion of mutual ties and signing cultural cooperation agreements. During the meeting, head of the Iran-Croatia parliamentary friendship group Ali Asghar Khani and its member Hossein Hosseinzadeh also expressed the readiness of the Islamic Consultative Assembly to help upgrade ties between Iran and Croatia in different fields and to help exchange of parliamentary delegations between the two countries.