ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday he was “deeply disturbed” by the Israeli-US attacks on Iran, but also condemned Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on the Gulf, demanding action to end the conflict.
The confrontation began earlier on Saturday with the Israeli and US strikes and quickly broadened regionally as Tehran retaliated against Gulf states and Israel.
“We are deeply disturbed over the US-Israel attacks on our neighbor Iran,” Erdogan said in a televised address, in which he also denounced Iran’s drone and missile attacks against the Gulf as “unacceptable, regardless of the reason.”
“In order to prevent our region from experiencing greater suffering, all actors, especially the Islamic world, must take action,” he added.
Turkiye had “worked hard for a long time to resolve the conflicts at the negotiating table... but the trust deficit between the parties could not be overcome,” he said, vowing to “accelerate Turkiye’s diplomatic efforts” to bring the parties back to the table.
Earlier Saturday, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi and six other top diplomats about ways to “end the attacks,” a foreign ministry source said.
Erdogan also said Turkiye had not seen any problem “in terms of border security” along the 500-kilometer (300-mile) frontier it shares with Iran.
“The police, gendarmerie and intelligence services are taking all necessary measures,” he said.
Earlier, Turkiye’s Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci also held calls with his Azerbaijani counterpart Vilayet Eyvazov and Iraq’s Interior Minister Abdul?Amir al?Shammari on “strengthening areas of cooperation,” the ministry wrote on X.
All three countries share a border with Iran.
Iran’s neighbors have long feared that a new round of strikes on the country could destabilize the entire region, with concerns focused on a possible influx of refugees.
Turkiye currently hosts more than 74,000 Iranians with residence permits and some 5,000 refugees.