Tehran, SANA- Interior Minister Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar and his Iranian Counterpart Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli signed in Tehran Monday a Memo of Understanding (MoU) on internal security cooperation including combating organized crime, terrorism, and all forms of financing them, and exchanging information and expertise in this regard.

The MoU also covers combating the production and trafficking of illicit drugs, theft of cultural and historical artifacts, forgery of documents, money laundering, human trafficking, organ trafficking, cybercrimes, and illegal immigration, in addition to covering cooperation in improving conditions in prisons, providing security for vital sites, protecting intellectual property, training police staff, monitoring borders, and forensics.

Other issues the MoU covers including exchanging expertise on citizens from one of the two countries who commit crimes in the other country, conducting joint research in the field of forensics, and facilitating citizens’ paperwork, among others.

The two sides held a press conference after the signing, in which the two ministers said that the MoU will help boost bilateral relations and contribute to counterterrorism efforts.

The MoU signing followed a meeting between the two ministers, who discussed relations of strategic cooperation, means of enhancing them, and mechanisms of coordination between interior security forces in both countries in facing the threat of Takfiri terrorism.

Means of facing organized crime and the flow of terrorists supported by Israel, the West, and their pawns in the region, were discussed in the meeting.

Both sides also discussed the expected tripartite meeting of the interior ministers of Syria, Iraq, and Iran scheduled to be held in Baghdad next week, a meeting which will focus on coordination mechanisms in fighting terrorism.

Gen. al-Shaar focused on the importance and necessity of professional cooperation between the two interior ministries and means of getting benefit from IT, modern methods of training and specialized qualification, exchanging expertise and information on the financing of terrorists and their movements across borders.

“Syria’s leadership is determined to fight terrorists and terrorism on one side, and rebuild what terrorism has destroyed on the other,” Minister al-Shaar said, expressing Syria’s appreciation for the Iran’s government and people for supporting Syria and standing by it.

For his part, The Iranian minister affirmed his country’s continuous support to Syria in fighting Takfiri terrorism which threatens all of humanity, saying that Syria is the first line of the resistance axes in the face of the Zionist entity and the plots targeting the whole region, adding that supporting Syria is a moral obligation in enhancing this axes, and hailing Syria’s people and leadership for their steadfastness and the sacrifices of the Syrian Arab Army and its achievements in defeating terrorists.

Al-Shaar also met Iranian Minister of Intelligence and National Security Mahmoud Alavi, discussing with him bilateral relations and cooperation mechanisms, particularly in relation to combating terrorism.

During the meeting, al-Shaar stressed the need to stop the sides that fund, arm, and harbor terrorists, while Alavi said that cooperation between Syria and Iran will help foil the plots of those who conspire against the region.

The Minister also met Commander of the Internal Security Forces in Iran, Brig. Gen. Hossein Ashtari, and discussed with him prospects of cooperation in combating terrorism and organized crime.

Al-Shaar reviewed the efforts of the ministry to improve its performance and raise its readiness, while Ashtari voiced Iran’s readiness to cooperate with internal security forces in Syria to face challenges, adding that such cooperation among the countries of the region will limit the expansion of crime.

Syria’s ambassador to Tehran Adnan Mahmoud and the delegation accompanying Gen. Shaar’s attended the meetings.

Upon arrival in Tehran on Sunday, Gen. Shaar said his two-day visit aims to strengthen bilateral relations and boost cooperation between the two countries’ interior affairs ministries and other establishment, particularly in the fields of combating terrorism, extremism, organized crime, illegal immigration, trafficking of archaeological artifacts, and narcotics.

English Bulletin