Eurasia Press & News
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s new ambassador to Turkey Bahman Hosseinpour Dhashtgholi, presented his credentials yesterday to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, thus upgrading the level of Tehran’s representation in Ankara from chargé d’affaires to ambassador after approximately two years.
Iran had been represented in Ankara by Chargé d’affaires Gholamreza Bagheri Moghaddam since October 2006, following the retirement of former Ambassador Firouz Dowlatabadi. Instead of naming a new ambassador, Tehran had appointed a chargé d’affaires to head its diplomatic mission in Ankara.
Dhashtgholi was a former consul general in Istanbul. Before being posted to Ankara, he headed the department of protocols at the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad paid a key visit to Istanbul. Expectations were high that the two countries would sign agreements to increase natural gas supplies from Iran during the visit, but the talks failed to produce a deal. Some news reports said the failure was due to pressure from the US, Today’s Zaman said.
The preliminary agreement for the gas deal was already signed last year.
Yet, both Turkish and Iranian officials have insisted that the deals were not completed because more negotiations are needed.
