Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with Al Jazeera that attacking Iran would be wrong, stating, “My advice to my American friends is this: close the files with Iran one by one.”
Al Jazeera English, while announcing the interview with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, said:
“The Turkish foreign minister said that attacking Iran would not be the right move. Hakan Fidan noted that Tehran is ready to return to negotiations and advised Washington to resolve its issues with Iran step by step.”
In the interview with Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, Fidan’s remarks were quoted as follows:
“Attacking Iran is wrong. Restarting a war is wrong. Iran is ready to return to negotiations on the nuclear issue.
My advice to my American friends is this: close the files with Iran one by one. Start with the nuclear file, close that one, then move on to the next. Do not bundle them all together.
If you present everything as a single package, it becomes difficult for our Iranian friends to digest. As a result, it is also hard for the process to function and to manage it from beginning to end.
Sometimes this may appear humiliating for them. It becomes very difficult to explain this not only to the public but also to the country’s leadership.
Therefore, if we can make things a bit more tolerable, I believe it would be helpful.”
‘Iran Can Find a Place in the New Regional Order’
Responding to Resul Serdar’s question, “Some analysts argue that a new regional order is emerging in which the U.S. primarily works with strong central states and excludes non-state actors. Where does Iran fit into this picture, or where should it fit?” Fidan said:
“Iran can actually fit very well into this picture and find a place. I am not talking about the current situation. I am talking about Iran’s capabilities, its potential, and what it can do.
When I was in Iran two months ago, I spoke quite frankly with my Iranian friends. Because they need to build trust in the region. They need to pay attention to how they are perceived by regional countries.
Because they are not going anywhere, and neither are we. Why is this important? Because within the nation-state system, regardless of differences in ideologies, regimes, sects, or other elements, we must know how to cooperate and work together in our region.”