Erdogan visit to Iran to address Syria, economic ties
The visit of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Tehran will offer an opportunity to defuse tensions on Syria while expanding economic relations.
All eyes are on Turkish-Iranian ties due to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-day visit to Iran that began Jan. 28 with a view toward advancing bilateral cooperation despite serious differences on a number of issues.
To start, the two countries are at odds over Syria, unreservedly supporting opposite sides in the conflict and having fundamentally different positions on the future of President Bashar al-Assad. While Ankara hopes for the demise of Assad and his regime, Tehran is clearly working to ensure that both remain in power in any settlement reached.
Ankara ostensibly supports Iranian participation in the Geneva II talks, as Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said on a number of occasions. Diplomats, however, doubt Ankara’s sincerity, observing that it is easy for Davutoglu to take such a position when he knows there will be others vehemently opposed to Tehran participating. Davutoglu’s support for Iran in regard to Geneva II is therefore said to have less to do with the Syria crisis and more to do with Ankara’s desire to maintain good ties with Tehran, especially in the area of economic and trade cooperation.
Turkey and Iran are also at odds over NATO’s US-controlled, state-of-the-art antimissile radar system, which is deployed in Turkey against a threat from Iran. Turkey’s insistence that the system does not target Iran is not accepted in Tehran — or anywhere else for that matter, given statements from NATO officials belying such assertions.
