Turkey to continue with Tehran diplomacy

ISTANBUL // Turkey aims to continue its efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the row surrounding Iran's nuclear programme, despite the view that the UN Security Council made a mistake in introducing new sanctions against Tehran, the country's prime minister said yesterday. "We do not want to be a part of that mistake," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an address to a Turkish-Arab forum in Istanbul one day after Turkey cast a "no" vote in the Security Council. "If we had not said 'no', that would have been a lie to ourselves, we would have denied our own signatures" under the recent agreement reached with Iran and Brazil for an uranium swap. "That would have been a dishonourable attitude."

Turkey rejected new sanctions partly out of fear that they could hurt the Turkish economy and partly because the Erdogan government is convinced they are counterproductive by making Iran less interested in making concessions concerning its nuclear programme, which the West fears may have military aims. Despite the insistence of the United States and other major powers on new sanctions, Turkey would not give up trying to find a diplomatic solution, Mr Erdogan said. "We want so solve everything at the [negotiating] table," he said. "No result will be reached by arms, by embargoes, by exclusion." A high-ranking Turkish diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkey was trying to persuade the Iranians not to walk away from talks with the international community about their nuclear programme. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, told reporters at a regional security conference in Istanbul this week that his government would no longer be interested in talks once new sanctions were in place. "We are trying to convince Iran not to leave the table," the diplomat said. "Whether we succeed is difficult to assess." Although Mr Erdogan and other government officials were putting on a brave face after the vote in the Security Council, Turkey's frustration at seeing its own efforts thwarted and disregarded by the West was readily apparent. Mr Erdogan said in his speech that negotiations before the Turkish-Brazilian-Iranian deal on the uranium swap reached last month in Tehran had been conducted in consultation with major powers. "Turkey is concerned that the UN Security Council resolution would undermine the window of opportunity" created by the Tehran agreement, the foreign ministry in Ankara said in a statement made public after the decision in New York on Wednesday. Mr Erdogan also rejected speculation that Turkey's "no" vote in the Security Council was a signal that the country was turning away from the West. "Those who say that Turkey has broken away from the West are the helpers of an ill-intentioned propaganda," he said. The prime minister also made a veiled reference to a statement by the US defence minister, Robert Gates, who said the European Union, which Turkey wants to join, had pushed Turkey towards the East by dragging its feet over Ankara's membership application. "We know about the secret agendas" of those in the EU trying to prevent Turkey from joining, Mr Erdogan said. Still, Turkey was determined to fulfil the EU's membership criteria. "This is a test," he said, referring to the EU. "We will see if they are serious or not." tseibert@thenational.ae