Iranian Foreign Minister: Threat to Iran amounts to threat to Turkey

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has reaffirmed his country's close ties with neighboring Turkey, saying any security threat to either of the two countries will be considered a threat by the other.    
                                                                                                           
“Any threat to security of Turkey amounts to a threat to the security of Iran. Any threat to the security of Iran amounts to a threat to the security of Turkey,” Mottaki said during a joint press conference following talks with his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, on Wednesday. Davutoğlu did not directly comment on Mottaki's statement but said Turkey and Iran have a constant and permanent mechanism of consultations. Iran's failure to meet a Dec. 31 deadline set by the US to accept a UN-brokered proposal to send its uranium abroad for processing has prompted six world powers to start considering possible tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Ankara constantly reiterates its willingness to find a peaceful solution to the dispute surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, while also voicing objections to UN sanctions on the neighboring country.

The United States and other nations suspect that Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward acquiring atomic weapons. Iran denies the charge and says the program is aimed at generating energy.

Noting that they discussed recent developments concerning Iran’s nuclear program, Davutoğlu stated that Turkey’s policy on the issue was very clear.

“We believe that Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology as an equal of all other countries,” Davutoğlu said. “We attach importance having our region purified of nuclear weapons,” he added, however, voicing Turkey’s firm objection to nuclear weapons, no matter for what reason and by whom they are developed.

Diplomacy should be the sole means to solve all controversial issues and Turkey will continue exerting all kinds of efforts to expand the zone of diplomacy, Davutoğlu said.

As of Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the United Nations. Last year’s UN proposal envisaged Iran sending low-enriched uranium to Russia and France for further enrichment and use in a research reactor in Tehran. It was aimed at lowering international tensions between Iran and the countries negotiating over its nuclear program -- the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany. It was unclear how much of a concession the Ahmadinejad comments represented.

He appeared to be saying for the first time that Iran is willing to ship out its enriched uranium and wait for it to be returned in the form of fuel for its Tehran research reactor. But his time frame of four or five months fell short of the year that Western officials say it would take for Iran’s enriched fuel to be turned into fuel rods for the reactor.

In Ankara on Wednesday, Mottaki said Tehran’s plan to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the UN is aimed at building confidence in the country’s nuclear program.

Mottaki said swapping low-enriched uranium with uranium enriched by 20 percent is “a formula which could build confidence,” while also noting that Tehran’s research reactor would need fuel within a year.

Nonetheless, European powers reacted skeptically on Wednesday to Iran’s offer to send uranium abroad for enrichment as a way of ending its showdown with the West.

French Foreign Ministry Bernard Kouchner said his personal interpretation of the Iranian offer is that they are “trying to buy time.” He told reporters in Paris that “I’m perplexed and even a bit pessimistic.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told journalists that Iran has to be measured by its actions, not by what it says. “It is up to Iran to show an end to its refusal to negotiate,” he said. “If there is a new approach, Iran has to submit its proposals to IAEA [the International Atomic Energy Agency] in Vienna, then the international community can evaluate them.”

/Today's Zaman/