Speaking after a meeting with visiting Foreign Trade Minister Elyor Ganiev and Uzbekneftegaz chief Alisher Sultanov in Tehran, Zangeneh said Tashkent has signaled willingness to buy crude oil from Iran.

"This is the second visit by an Uzbek official to Iran in the past 30 days and the pivot of most of the meetings in these visits has been crude oil and downstream cooperation with Iran," he said.

The official further said that Uzbekistan has indicated readiness to invest in Iran's oil industry upstream and petrochemical sectors, too.

He also said that Alisher Sultanov is also scheduled to meet with Managing Director of Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Reza Mourzadeh.

"Buying oil from Iran is the first step from Uzbekistan to enhance its relations with Iran," he added.