Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday he was “deeply disturbed” by Israeli and US strikes on Iran but also condemned Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile attacks on Gulf states as “unacceptable,” calling on regional actors to move quickly to stop the fighting.
The confrontation began earlier Saturday with Israeli and US attacks on Iran and quickly spread as Tehran retaliated against targets in the Gulf and Israel.
“We are deeply disturbed over the US-Israel attacks on our neighbor Iran,” Erdoğan said in a televised address. He said Iran’s attacks on Gulf countries were “unacceptable, regardless of the reason.”
Erdoğan said Turkey had pushed for talks for a long time but said a lack of trust between the parties had blocked progress. He said Turkey would “accelerate” diplomatic efforts to bring the sides back to negotiations.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone earlier Saturday with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, and six other senior diplomats about steps to end the attacks, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.
Erdoğan said Turkey had not seen any problems with border security along the roughly 500 kilometer frontier with Iran. He said police, gendarmerie and intelligence services were taking measures.
Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi also had calls with counterparts in Azerbaijan and Iraq about strengthening cooperation, the Interior Ministry said on X. Both countries share a border with Iran.
Iran’s neighbors have long warned that major attacks on the country could destabilize the region, including by driving refugees across borders. Turkey hosts more than 74,000 Iranians with residence permits and about 5,000 refugees.
© Agence France-Presse