Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s visit to Iran last week came as something of a surprise given the frosty climate between Ankara and Tehran due to serious differences over Syria. It was only a matter of days before the visit that Davutoglu, in an interview with Al Jazeera, had lambasted Iran for its support of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The Iranian government has generally remained diplomatically restrained against such outbursts from Turkey. It has preferred to leave the job of responding to Turkey to the Iranian media — which has often aired virulent claims that Ankara is aiding al-Qaeda-related terrorists in Syria — and to lawmakers in the Iranian parliament.

For example, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the chairman of Iran’s parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, was quoted Feb. 19 by the state-owned Press TV, warning Turkey that it is “playing with fire in the region by nurturing terrorists and providing them with weapons.”

Boroujerdi’s comments followed the deadly car bomb explosion in Ankara that killed 29 people. The government blamed the People’s Protection Units, the Syrian Kurdish group — linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party — that has allied itself with Russia against Sunni fighters in Syria who Tehran claims are supported by Ankara.