TEHRAN — Iranian state TV says the country's top leader has called for better ties with Iran's Gulf Arab neighbors during a rare meeting with the visiting Kuwaiti emir. The report on Monday quotes Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying regional security “depends on good relations among all countries of the region.” Khamenei has the final say on all state matters. He says differences among countries in the region will only please their common enemies, and expressed hope for “a new chapter” of economic relations between Iran and Kuwait. State TV also said the two countries signed six agreements, including one related to security, during the two-day visit of the emir, Sheik Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Kuwait's emir on Sunday started a landmark visit to Tehran. The two-day visit comes amid a thaw in ties between Tehran and six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since the election of Iran's moderate President Hassan Rohani in June 2013. Sheikh Sabah, on his first visit to Tehran as head of state, flew in at the head of a high-level delegation including the foreign, oil, finance, commerce and industry ministers. “Our ties with Kuwait are very important to us and we hope this trip would be a new chapter to boost cooperation,” said Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, quoted by state news agency IRNA.– Agencies
