President Rouhani welcomed President Fischer in an official ceremony earlier in the day. They also held a meeting prior to the press conference.

President Fischer, who is in Iran on an official visit, said during the presser that he expected Austria’s bilateral trade with Iran to grow to 300 million euros this year, and continue to “markedly” increase in the coming years.

He also said that the two governments had agreed to increase political and economic cooperation, and the agreements would benefit both sides equally.

Iran and Austria agreed to increase political and economic cooperation

The Iranian president, for his part, firstly thanked the Austrian government for its “good hosting” of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 countries, which culminated in an agreement between the two sides.

In response to a question about Iran’s support for the Syrian government, President Rouhani said the priority now is putting an end to the total insecurity in the country and the misery of the people.

“The first step is to stop the bloodshed in Syria,” the Iranian president said, adding that once that priority is fulfilled, it will be time to discuss such political issues as democracy and opposition in the Arab country.

President Rouhani emphasized that the future of Syria should be built by the Syrian people themselves through popular voting.

“No foreign country can and should decide about Syria’s future,” he said, adding that all countries should cooperate for the settlement of the Syrian crisis.

Iran is ready to sit at the negotiating table with any country or world power if the Islamic Republic is certain that its negotiating partner understands that the future of Syria is an internal Syrian issue and that what matters is peace in the Arab country.