Tehran, Iran, August 22
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Kurds remain a major point of disagreement among Moscow, Tehran, and Ankara despite new efforts from the three countries to increase the friendly relations, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi believes.
“The position of Russia on the Kurds may be different from those of Turkey and Iran because they are not their neighbors and are likely to be manipulated. Also, Turkey and Iran tend to think alike about Kurds in some occasions and vary in some others,” the spokesman said at a press conference, Trend's correspondent reported from the event August 22.
Regarding the Tehran-Ankara cooperation over the Syrian crisis, he said disagreements do not make excuse for not working together.
“Turkey is our important neighbor and neighbors do not lose significance and one has to work with them. We enjoy various points of bilateral and regional cooperation,” he stated.
However, he went on to say, “We will not dictate our stance to anybody, nor will we allow anyone to dictate theirs to us…. There were some who were looking for a substitute for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but failed to find one over the past five years.”
“We used to be in disagreement with Turkey over Syria, but in the recent past we have engaged in boosting ties and been holding more talks to make peace return to the region,” the diplomat said.
Turkey has grown more welcoming of Russia and Iran’s position on the Syrian crisis in the past few months. The country sued to side with the US and Saudi Arabia in rearing opposition groups in Syria, but now voices a position that is more like that of Tehran and Moscow.