TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Justice Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi in separate bilateral meetings with some high-ranking officials and representatives of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization in Tehran on Wednesday underlined the need for the further expansion of relations between Iran and AALCO member-states.
Pourmohammadi met judicial representatives of Palestine, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, the UAE and Jordan in Tehran on the sidelines of the 53rd Annual Meeting of AALCO.
During his bilateral meetings, the Iranian justice minister reiterated Iran's resolve to further expand its relations with AALCO countries.
The 53rd AALCO annual meeting started work in Tehran on Monday in the presence of Iranian Vice-President for Legal Affairs Elham Aminzadeh.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi announced earlier this month that during the meeting, which is held in the presence of high-ranking officials and representatives of 49 countries, important issues related to the international laws, including marine rights, immigrants rights, economic sanctions, recent developments related to Palestine, the international trade laws, sustainable peace and other issues related to the international laws would be discussed and studied by the member states.
"The upcoming meeting of the AALCO is specially sensitive given the current conflicts and violence in the region as the legal issues related to extremism and violence will be discussed and studied by the members as the special issue of the meeting," Araqchi said.
Also, a special meeting to study extremism and terrorism is due to be held on the sidelines of the AALCO conference.
The AALCO originally known as the Asian Legal Consultative Committee (ALCC) was constituted on 15 November 1956. It is considered to be a tangible outcome of the historic Bandung Conference, held in Indonesia, in April 1955. Seven Asian States, namely Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, and the United Arab Republic (now Arab Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic) are the original Member States.
Forty-seven countries comprising almost all the major States from Asia and Africa are presently the members of the organization. These countries are: Arab Republic of Egypt, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Botswana, Cameroon, Cyprus, Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Gambia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peoples Republic of China, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, State of Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, and Republic of Yemen.