ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 13 (Interfax) - Cooperation between the Russian and Iranian foreign policy and defense agencies on Syria has resulted in improvements in the situation in Syria, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said while meeting with Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on the sidelines of the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on Friday.
"Terrorism has a migratory nature and therefore the fight against it is not short-term," Larijani said. "
"There is a need for effective cooperation on the eradication of terrorism, work on cultural issues that can have influence," he said.
The Iranian parliament speaker spoke about the countries that "use terrorism as an instrument to achieve their own goals." "Yes, they declare that they are fighting against terrorism, but behind the scenes they, of course, support them. Therefore, I believe the foundation that exists between our ministries and agencies on security issues should continue and the cooperation should develop," he said.
"We have very good experience in fighting terrorism, in particular, in Syria, where our cooperation has achieved a result. We have believed from the very start that there should be a political solution in Syria, there is no military solution for this issue," he said.
"But you know very well that some countries have created a crisis there, and therefore cooperation between Iran and Russia was strategic in nature. Cooperation between Iran and Russia on security issues was successful," Larijani told Volodin.
"Our cooperation took place simultaneously with the Astana process to achieve political settlement of this issue on this platform. And these two aspects complemented each other," he said.
"We see that in Iraq the fight against terrorism is nearing its end, and in Syria work still remains to be done. There are factors there that influence this issue," he said.