Bosnia and Iran Vow Joint Struggle Against Extremists

Bosnia and Iran will cooperate to fight terrorism and increase trade, the chairman of the Bosnian presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, said on Tuesday, on a visit to Tehran with a high-level Bosnian delegation.

"Radicalism … compromises our [Muslim] faith and presents it in the wrong light," Izetbegovic said, after discussing the fight against terrorism with Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani.

"Bosniaks - Bosnian Muslims - and Iranians will work to show our faith in the right light. Islam is peace, reconciliation, light," he added. 

The four-day visit this week, by a delegation which includes Trade Minister Mirko Sarovic and Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak, also saw the two countries sign a memorandum of understanding to increase bilateral investment in small and medium enterprises.

This is linked to a further proposal to loosen the rigid visa regime between the two countries, which Izetbegovic said "should be urgently addressed to facilitate the movement of capital".

The Bosnian presidency told BIRN it could not yet release any further specifics about the proposals, but Iranian state-run PressTV reported that a joint commission in December would finalise areas of trade cooperation.

Denis Hadzovic, secretary general of Sarajevo's Center for Security Studies, said it remained to be seen what a new commitment between Bosnia and Iran to fight extremism would look like.

However, he said the promise could be connected to a general deepening of diplomatic ties and economic cooperation, and possibly to the trade in oil.

He also said that Bosnia's main partner against extremism is still the US-backed "global coalition" to counter ISIS, which Sarajevo joined in November 2014.

Since then, partly thanks to a new law in Bosnia...