Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has called on Turkey to ‘join hands’ with the Islamic republic in the war against the takfiri terrorists, and accused Washington of creating Daesh and using it as a proxy army.
“As American officials have admitted, they created Daesh and, naturally, this group moves on the orders of the Americans and commits massacres and causes bloodshed in various countries as a US proxy,” Raisi said, speaking to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Tehran on Monday, cited by Iranian media.
“The presence of this terrorist group anywhere in the region is dangerous to nations. The fight against terrorism and organized crime can be a focus of cooperation between Tehran and Ankara, and Iran is ready to improve cooperation in this area,” Raisi said.
The Iranian leader suggested that Middle Eastern nations could solve problems and assure their own security independently and without foreign interference, telling Cavusoglu that “the presence of outsiders has no result but insecurity, tension among regional nations and governments.”
Raisi pointed to the experience of the two-decade US and NATO war in Afghanistan – in which Turkey played a part, saying that “the twenty-year presence of the US in Afghanistan had no result but murder and bloodshed, and it became clear that the problems of Afghanistan can only be solved by its people and through assistance of neighbouring countries.”
Biden, Erdogan Reportedly Agree to Set Up Mechanism to Improve Ties After Narrowly Averting New Spat
31 October 2021, 10:55 GMT
The Iranian president also told the Turkish foreign minister that closer cooperation between Iran and Turkey, particularly in the economy and through trade ties, would serve the interests of the two Muslim nations. “Regional cooperation between the two countries must turn into cooperation in the international arena, as such interaction could be influential in global equations, considering the major position of the two countries,” he emphasized.
Cavusoglu, for his part, said Ankara was looking to expedite the improvement of ties with Iran and its new ‘results-oriented’ administration, and expressed support for greater cooperation between the two countries against terrorism and toward achieving regional security in the South Caucasus. Cavusoglu hailed the “promising” 71-percent growth in trade between the two countries in 2021, and said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to travel to Tehran before the end of the year for a formal visit.
Carefully Veiled Tensions
Despite cordial formal ties, Iran and Turkey have a number of outstanding disagreements, both in regional geopolitics and regarding the United States. Despite the recent cooling of ties between Ankara and Washington, Turkey remains a member of NATO, and allows the US and other bloc allies to use its military facilities, including Incirlik Air Base. Iran’s relations with the US have been hostile since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the two countries’ militaries have repeatedly come close to blows in standoffs in the Persian Gulf in recent years.
Iran also disagrees with Turkish policy in Syria, with Ankara seizing control of wide swathes of northern Syria on the pretext of fighting Daesh and Kurdish ‘terrorists’. The Islamic republic has provided assistance to the Damascus government in its struggle against an array of jihadist and rebel groups, including forces sponsored by Turkey, and emphasized the importance of respecting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Growing Turkish support for Azerbaijan has also occasionally irked Tehran, with Iranian authorities summoning Turkey’s ambassador last year over Erdogan’s recitation of a poem at a military parade in Baku which Tehran took to be an incitement of nationalist and separatist sentiments in Iran’s northern West Azerbaijan province. During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Iran called on Ankara to support regional initiatives to restore peace instead of “adding fuel to the fire,” and warned that Tehran would not tolerate the presence of Syrian jihadists allegedly deployed in the conflict zone with Turkey’s assistance near its borders. Turkey denied any role in the transfer of fighters from Syria to boost Azeri forces.
* A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.