Hakan Fidan made his first visit to Iran since he took the post as Türkiye’s new foreign minister this summer. Fidan met his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran and the two top diplomats held a joint news conference later.
Fidan said Türkiye and Iran were two great states in the region and with this “great power came great responsibility.” “This is a responsibility to maintain peace and stability in our region,” Fidan said.
Türkiye and Iran enjoy warm ties as two neighbors although they are on different sides in several regional issues, particularly in the Syrian civil war. Türkiye long called for a political solution to the conflict while Iran has been a staunch supporter of the Assad regime, which Ankara severed ties after the war broke out. Iran is now, along with Russia, sponsoring normalization talks between Ankara and the Assad regime.
Fidan said they exchanged views on regional issues during their talks. “We discussed Syria in particular, along with issues related to Iraq, Palestine, the Southern Caucasus region, Yemen, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Libya. We discussed deepening talks on Syria. Türkiye has a clear stance on Syria and clear expectations from the Syrian (regime). In particular, we seek reassuring steps from Syria for the safe, voluntary, dignified return of Syrian refugees in our country. We want measures to be implemented to prevent the flow of more refugees and lastly, steps for counterterrorism. We want Syria to cooperate with us in eradicating PKK terrorism,” he said.
The minister stated that regional developments and crises highlighted the importance of Turkish-Iranian cooperation. He added that they hoped to advance their bilateral relations through dialogue mechanisms such as the High-Level Cooperation Council. He said they also discussed preparations for the upcoming visit of Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to Türkiye for the eighth high-level cooperation meeting.
