Turkey’s foreign minister has warned against inciting civil war in Iran, while warning Tehran after NATO intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran and bound for Turkey earlier this week.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said any attempt to provoke a civil war in Iran in order to achieve regime change would be a “historic” mistake.
“We oppose everything aimed at fomenting civil war in Iran and targeting ethnic or religious fault lines,” Fidan told reporters in Istanbul.
“This is the most dangerous situation,” he added.
His comments came after reports that Washington is seeking to arm Kurdish guerrillas to infiltrate Iran, an offensive that US President Donald Trump has expressed support for.
The move will draw the ire of Turkey, which is seeking to end a decades-long bloody conflict with the Kurdish militants known as the PKK.
Fidan said he had raised the matter with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who denied U.S. involvement in such issues.
“They stated that they were not involved in such an effort and had no such intention,” Fidan said after the two spoke on Wednesday, accusing Israel of “a strategy of using Kurdish groups in the region as proxies.”
“We publicly warn everyone … against this situation,” he added.
“Not only will this cause more suffering and loss of life for innocent civilians in Iran, it will also cause millions of people to be displaced and flee to neighboring countries and beyond,” he said.
“We hope that Kurdish opinion leaders in the region will not mistakenly assume such historical responsibility,” he said.
“Such a mistake can never be corrected.
“A long period of uncertainty, war and chaos in Iran, following Iraq and Syria, is in no one’s interest,” he said.
“Any internal crisis there will have a ripple effect that spreads throughout the region. That’s why we’re trying to stop it.”
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
