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| Ahmadinejad, left, thanked Erdogan, right, for his support on Iran’s nuclear programme [EPA |
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Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, has said that he “appreciates” the
support shown by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, over
Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Erdogan, who arrived in Tehran for
bilateral talks on Tuesday, has accused Western nations of hypocrisy in
criticising Iran’s uranium enrichment programme while remaining silent
on Israel, which is believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.
Ahmadinejad
told Erdogan: “When an illicit regime possesses nuclear arms, one can
not talk about depriving other nations from the peaceful nuclear
programme.
“Your clear stance towards the Zionist regime had a positive effect
in the world, especially the Islamic world, and I am sure that everyone
was satisfied,” he said, according to the Iranian presidential website
‘Peaceful’ programme
Erdogan
had told journalists travelling with him to Iran that the country’s
nuclear programme, which Western nations say could be a cover for
building weapons,
“is an energy project with peaceful, humanitarian purposes”.
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“If
their [Iran’s] positive attitude is answered with a positive attitude,
this will bring forward the process in the positive direction”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Turkey’s prime minister
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He said talks between Tehran and world
powers in Geneva on October 1 showed that it “can work with” the United
States and Russia on uranium enrichment.
“If their positive
attitude is answered with a positive attitude, this will bring forward
the process in the positive direction,” Erdogan said.
His latest remarks came after an interview in Britain’s The Guardian newspaper in which he accused Western powers of treating Iran unfairly and referred to Ahmadinejad as a “friend”.
Ties between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated since the December-January war on Gaza.
Ankara had previously attempted to mediate relations between Israel
and other Middle Eastern nations, but earlier this month, Turkey banned
Israel from an international air exercise because of the Gaza conflict.
Gas ‘co-operation’
The
Turkish prime minister has brought a 200-member delegation, comprising
ministers, members of parliament and business leaders, to Iran to
discuss a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues.
Isna, the Iranian students news agency, said that Ahmadinejad had
told Erdogan there were no limitations to Iranian-Turkish co-operation.
Taner
Yildiz, Turkey’s energy minister, said that one of the areas in which
the two neighbours would work together was gas exploration.
He
said that Turkey would start exploration work at Iran’s South Pars gas
field next month as part of a project to sell gas to Europe, the
state-run Anatolian news agency reported.
“Turkish Petroleum
will be exploring in the South Pars Field … The work will have
started by the first or second week of November,” Yildiz said.
It
was not immediately clear whether the gas would go through the planned
$11.76bn European Union-backed Nabucco pipeline, which was agreed with
ankara in July.
Erdogan on Tuesday said he supported Iran’s presence in the Nabucco
project and added: “I believe that sooner or later, the project will
understand the importance of Iran’s participation”.
Iranian-Turkish trade stands at around $12bn a year and the two nations are seeking to expand it to $20bn in the next two years.
Erdogan is
also expected to hold talks with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme
leader and Ali Larijani, the parliamentary speaker during, his visit.
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