Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast hailed the existing strategic ties between Tehran and Ankara, and reiterated that Iran will never make use of the other nations’ needs to take political advantages.
Iran and Turkey would never take advantage of the needs of the other country to exert pressure on each other, Mehman-Parast said in Ankara on Saturday when asked whether Tehran would use its gas exports to Turkey as a means to exert pressure on Ankara.
“Relations between Iran and Turkey are strategic and the two countries have the best political and economic ties,” the Iranian diplomat emphasized.
Iran exports a daily volume of 30mln c/m or an annual volume of 10bln c/m of gas to Turkey.
On December 4, NATO approved Turkey’s request for the deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles along its border with Syria.
Meantime, people in Turkey took to the streets and hold massive rallies across the country during the past few weeks to show anger at the possible deployment of NATO’s Patriot missiles along their country’s border with Syria.
Earlier this month, Turkey’s Communist Party in a statement lashed out at Ankara for its decision to deploy NATO’s Patriot missile batteries along the border with Syria, and said the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan will pay a heavy price for turning Turkey into a battlefield.
“The government of Turkey’s Justice and Development party has deployed the Patriot missile system, and foreign military forces are standing on Turkish soil without the government’s official agreement,” the statement said.
“The government of Erdogan will pay the price for the illegal turning of Turkey into a battlefield,” it added.
On December 18, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi cautioned that deployment of western troops in the region is against the Muslim nations’ interests after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) chief tried to portray deployment of Patriot missile along Turkey-Syria borders as “defensive”.
“We have always said that we are against foreign military presence in the region and do not consider it in the interests of the regional Muslim nations because the West has showed that it does not think about the interests of the Muslim nations and has always pursued its own interests,” Vahidi said.
