Iran and Turkey open rift over Syria

A rift is emerging between Iran and its close regional ally, Turkey, after senior officials in Tehran criticised a conference on the Syrian crisis held in Istanbul.

Iran's defence minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, said the Friends of the Syrian People conference served the interests of "the Zionist regime of Israel", the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday.

Foreign ministers from dozens of countries gathered in Istanbul at the weekend to warn Syria's Bashar al-Assad about his handling of the uprisings, which has resulted in the death of thousands of people. Britain and the US participated in the conference, but Iran, China and Russia were absent.

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who went to Tehran last week for a two-day visit with senior Iranian officials, including the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been an outspoken critics of the Syrian regime.

Despite their alliance, Turkey and Iran remain at odds over Syria. Iran has publicly shown moral support for Assad and has been accused by the west of providing military backing for his regime too, allegations Tehran denies. Turkey, on the other hand, has offered refuge to Syrian opposition figures and played a key role within the international community in condemning the Syrian regime.

Iran has portrayed Syrian protesters as terrorists who have taken up arms against the police and the Assad's rule. Vahidi said Istanbul's conference has failed to condemn "terrorist attacks in Syria".

In response to Vahidi's remarks, which were echoed by other Iranian authorities including the parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, Turkey's foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador.

"We summoned the Iranian envoy … to demand an explanation on the remarks," Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a press conference.

Erdogan's visit to Tehran was aimed at negotiating a resumption of nuclear talks with the world's major powers, including the US, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain, the group known as P5+1. At the time of his visit, Iran expressed willingness to choose Istanbul as the venue for talks believed to be scheduled for next week.

But after the recent row over Syria, Iranian officials appeared to have changed their minds about Istanbul as a venue, and have instead suggested other unlikely capitals, including Baghdad.

The head of Iran's parliamentary committee on foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said his country did not want Turkey to host the talks on Tehran's nuclear programme. "Iranian officials are not interested in Turkey as the host," Iran's reformist newspaper, Etemaad, quoted Boroujerdi as saying on Thursday.

In the light of the tensions between Ankara and Tehran, it is not clear whether the nuclear talks between Iran and the west scheduled for next week will take place at all.

Source: THE GUARDIAN