Turkey urges Iran to explain threats

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey has demanded an explanation from Iran for its threatening remarks by Iranian officials but Iran says statements represent only personal views of officials and that they are not Iran’s official position.

Diplomatic sources said Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu demanded an explanation from his Iranian counterpart, Ali Akbar Salehi, for a threatening statement by an Iranian lawmaker, state-run Anatolia news agency said on Tuesday, December 12.

“It is Iran's natural right to target the missile defense shield system in Turkey in case of an attack, and we will definitely resort to that,” Hussein Ibrahim, the vice president of the Iranian parliamentary national security and foreign policy panel, reportedly said in an interview with the Iranian daily Shargh on Sunday.

Turkish diplomats earlier told Today’s Zaman that the Iranian foreign ministry had assured Turkey they do not back such threats and the threats do not reflect ministerial policy. The officials also repeated Ankara's position that Turkey should only acknowledge statements from Iranian officials actually in charge, including the Iranian president and the foreign ministry. Ibrahim's remarks came shortly after a similar suggestion by Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division, who explicitly voiced the warning that “should we [Iran] be threatened, we will target NATO's missile defense shield in Turkey and then hit our next targets.”

The Anatolia said Davutoğlu expressed his uneasiness to Salehi on Tuesday over the remarks. Iranian foreign minister told Davutoğlu that the statements are only binding the individuals and that this is not Iran’s official position.

This is the second time that Davutoğlu is expressing Turkey’s concern over similar remarks to Salehi. He told his Iranian counterpart two weeks ago in Jeddah that Turkey is uneasy over recent statements by some Iranian officials.

Salehi, who met with Davutoğlu in Jeddah on the sidelines of a gathering on Syria organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said he does not share these views and that they don't reflect the official Iranian position, Today’s Zaman reported.