Turkey to help Iran resolve dispute with US?

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran has asked Turkey to help it resolve its 30-year dispute with the US as a possible prelude to re-establishing ties, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, Guardian reports. As it is mentioned in the article, Iranian officials made the request while George Bush was in office. Erdogan added that he had passed the message to the White House at the time. He said he was considering raising the matter with Barack Obama, who has said he wants to engage with Iran at a G20 summit in London in April.



Asked if Turkey could play a mediating role in overcoming mistrust between Washington and Tehran, Erdogan replied: "Iran does want Turkey to play such a role. And if the United States also wants and asks us to play this role, we are ready to do this. They said to us that if something like this would happen, they want Turkey to play a role. These were words that were said openly. But I have told this to President Bush myself."



Iran and Turkey have drawn closer in recent years, helped by growing trade links last year estimated at £5.5bn. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, met Erdogan and the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, in Istanbul last August, and several Turkish officials have also visited Iran in recent months to boost economic ties. Turkey imports one-third of its natural gas from Iran and has signed preliminary agreements to invest heavily in the Iranian gas industry.

The author states, that US officials have previously reacted skeptically to Turkish proposals to mediate with Iran. However, the idea may be given fresh consideration by the Obama administration, which has set up a sweeping policy review policy after the president promised to reach out if Iran "unclenched its fist".