Iran summoned the Turkish ambassador in Tehran on Monday over comments made by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and President Tayyip Erdogan, accusing the Islamic Republic of destabilising the region.
Turkey and Iran have been regional rivals for centuries, but have sought to forge a pragmatic relationship in recent years, with the Iran strongly supporting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after last year’s failed coup.
Turkey, a country with a Sunni majority, and Shia Iran have been on opposite sides of the conflict in Syria, with Ankara seeking the overthrow President Bashar al-Assad and Tehran being, along with Russia, his key backer.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu lashed out at Iran in a speech to the Munich Security Conference at the weekend, saying some of its actions had undermined security in the region and urging Tehran to promote stability.
“Iran wants to make Syria and Iraq Shia,” he said, quoted by Turkish state media.
“Turkey is very much against any kind of division, religious or sectarian,” he said.
Erdogan also accused Iran of promoting a “Persian nationalism” that had damaged the Middle East.
“There is Persian nationalism here, we have to prevent this. We cannot just watch this oppression,” Erdogan said on a visit to Bahrain on February 14.
Iran’s warning
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghassemi warned on Monday that Tehran’s patience “had limits,” after Tehran summoned Turkish ambassador over Turkish remarks.
“We hope that such statements are not made again. If our Turkish friends continue with this attitude we will not remain silent,” he added.
Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu hit back by saying it was “incomprehensible” to receive such accusations from Tehran who he charged with “not hesitating to push into war zones refugees sheltering from regional crises.”
Source: / aljazeera /