Erdogan Says No Solution to ME Conflicts Without Iran

The conflicts that have engulfed the Middle East region cannot be resolved without Iran’s engagement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that despite having some differences with Iran, Turkey does not support the US’ highly antagonistic Iran policy. In an interview with the Portuguese state broadcaster RTP on Thursday, Erdogan said although he does not approve of what he described as “Persian expansionism” in the Middle East, Turkey would not follow in the footsteps of the new administration in Washington that has taken a “different approach toward Iran” from that of the former US government. There are issues on which Turkey “gets along with Iran” and others where it does not, but “this does not mean that Turkey has the same approach to Iran as the United States”, Anadolu News Agency quoted him as saying. Erdogan said Turkey and Iran, along with Russia, are working together to bring peace to Syria through the Astana talks, and he believes excluding Tehran from efforts to deal with the crises in Iraq and Syria would not serve anybody’s interests.