TEHRAN-- Head of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stressed here Sunday the need to consolidate regional cooperation to confront imposed crises and restore regional peace and security, IRNA reported.

In a meeting with visiting Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Kuwaiti National Assembly (Majlis al-Umma) Mohammed Jasem al-Saqr, Rafsanjani underlined the need to prevent the dominance of foreign powers over the oil reserves of the region.

He warned that such dominance would pave the way for further aggression of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and would also result in those powers imposing their policies on regional states.

"Iran seeks establishment of an independent, free and democratically-elected government in Iraq," he said, adding that Iran believes that foreign powers in the region are "unreliable and untrustworthy".

"The worst thing that might happen is that current developments would lead to the establishment of a dictatorship and a U.S.-installed puppet government in Iraq," the Iranian official reiterated.

Rafsanjani expressed support for expansion of bilateral ties between Iran and Kuwait as well as multilateral defense cooperation with regional states.

"Iran is a close friend of Kuwait," he said. "Consolidation of bilateral ties and cooperation in all fields, particularly in parliamentary area is beneficial to the two countries and the Middle East region."

Rafsanjani voiced Iran's full support for a project to export Iran's gas and water to Kuwait.

Al-Saqr, for his part, conveyed the warm and friendly greetings of the Kuwaiti emir and nation and expressed appreciation for Iran's realistic policy towards regional developments including the Iraqi and Afghan crises.

He called for further strengthening of mutual ties with Iran as well as facilitation of Iran's gas and water export to his country.