PM Erdoğan set to visit Iran, Iraq

Friday, September 25, 2009
NEW YORK – Anatolia News Agency


Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he will visit neighboring Iran and Iraq as the Turkish government tries to cast itself as a regional troubleshooter.

The prime minister said he would visit Iran in October or November after meeting with the Islamic country’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during the United Nations General Assembly meetings held in New York.

“We have given our messages regarding Iran in the United Nations Security Council,” Erdoğan told reporters late on Thursday. “We will now pay a visit to Iran by the end of October or in November. Then, we will have the chance to discuss these issues in more detail.”

Erdoğan’s announcement came as Iran admitted on Friday to building a second uranium enrichment plant, just days before it meets six world powers for talks on its disputed atomic drive. The revelation, coming just ahead of the Oct. 1 talks between Tehran and the so-called P5+1 of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, is likely to fuel fears about the true nature of the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

The Turkish prime minister said Turkey had already laid down its opinion regarding the prevention of dissemination of nuclear weapons, adding that it would continue to express this sensitivity in bilateral talks from now on.

Iraq visit
Later on Friday, Erdoğan told journalists during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh that he also has plans to visit Turkey’s war-torn neighbor, Iraq, next month. “We will visit Iraq mid-month,” he said.

Turkey, a NATO member and a candidate for EU membership, has in recent years focused on boosting its political and economic cooperation with Middle Eastern countries and sought to set itself up as a broker in regional conflicts.

Last month, Turkey tried to reconcile Iraq and Syria after they withdrew envoys over Baghdad's allegations that Damascus was sheltering insurgents. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus, and then held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad.

Relations between Iraq and Syria deteriorated after Baghdad alleged that Damascus was harboring the leaders behind one of two devastating truck bombings that killed 95 people and wounded about 600 in the Iraqi capital on Aug. 19.