Head of National Intelligence Organization (MIT) Ibrahim Kalın has held talks in Iran with his Iranian counterpart over the weekend, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported. Kalın discussed the fight against terrorist groups and the situation in Syria.
He met with Iran's intelligence minister, Esmail Khatib, as well as security chief Ali Akbar Ahmadian, who is the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.
They discussed "the fight against terrorist groups, especially the PKK and Daesh, common threats, the situation in Syria, the Gaza cease-fire and developments in the Palestinian issue," AA said. The PKK's members spread through Türkiye, Iran, Iraq and Syria over the years, posing a threat to four neighbors.
Last month, MIT eliminated Islam Dotkanlou, a senior figure of the PKK terrorist group's Iranian branch, in an operation in Iraq. Last year, Türkiye’s Minister of National Defense expressed concern about Iran disregarding the PKK’s activities. Yaşar Güler said in a televised interview that “Iranian” and “American” friends of his country were giving free room to the group that is most active in Türkiye’s southern neighbors. “We give the location of (PKK terrorists) to our Iranian friends, but they reply that they checked them and could not find them. This is not a good approach to this matter. This disturbs us,” Güler said in a televised interview. He was referring to PKK terrorists fleeing into Iran through the Turkish border and underlined that they provided concrete data to Iran through surveillance of terrorists by uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV).
Türkiye and Iran were also on opposite sides of Syria's long-running civil war, with Türkiye historically backing opponents of recently deposed strongman Bashar Assad, while Iran supported his rule. Kalın was the first high-ranking Turkish official to visit Syria after Assad's fall. Assad was deposed on Dec. 8, and the leaders of Türkiye and Iran held their first meeting in Cairo later that month.
Also, on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi, discussing bilateral issues and "the situation in Palestine." Like Türkiye, Iran is a staunch supporter of Hamas and the Palestinian cause. It does not recognize Israel and launched a massive missile attack last year targeting Israel as tensions between the two countries escalated over Israel's genocide targeting Palestinians in Gaza.
