“The US and foreign powers are unreliable and after creating a new Israel in the region,” said Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic republic of Iran, on Wednesday afternoon.
The Iranian top figure made the remark during his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey who is in Tehran for a one-day visit. Mr. Erdogan was accompanied by his entourage and a host of Iranian official like President Rouhani and FM Zarif in this meeting.
Stressing on call for expansion of ties, the Iranian Leader described Tehran-Ankara agreement and cooperation very significant and influential in the Islamic world.
“If Iran and Turkey reach an agreement in dealing with an issue, facing all these problems in the Islamic world from Eastern Asia and Myanmar to Northern Africa, that agreement would assuredly be realized and the benefits will be for the two countries and the whole Islamic world,” asserted the Iranian Leader.
“Unfortunately despite the huge capacity of cooperation, the bilateral economic interactions have not witnessed any significant rise in the past years and more efforts are necessary to be given to this cause,” the Iranian Leader called for measures to boost economic ties.
Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the alignment between Iran and Turkey in Astana talks and voiced content with the improving situation in Syria before warning that “the issue of ISIL will not come to an end in this way and the full resolution of the crisis will demand a realistic and long-run plan.”
Referring to the independence referendum held by KRG and its long term effects on the region, he stressed, “This is a threat to the future of the region. Iran and Turkey will take any necessary actions to confront it and Iraqi central government should decide and act seriously on the issue.”
Emphasizing the significance of Iran and Turkey cooperation and their joint serious political and economic decisions, leader said, “The US and the European administrations’ attitude toward the issue is different from Iran and Turkey’s. The US intends to have a tricky agent against Iran and Turkey, so the stance of the Americans and the Europeans should not be trusted at all.”
Addressing the Turkish President, Ayatollah Khamenei added, “As you mentioned the only benefiters of the recent developments are the Zionist regime and the US respectively.”
For his part, Erdogan underscored the need for a powerful alliance between Iran and Turkey in the region.
Touching on Iraq’s Kurdish session vote, the Turkish president said Ankara, Baghdad and Tehran should take joint action against the move.
Based on undisputable evidence, the US and Israel have reached a general agreement on the Kurdish session vote, Erdogan said, regretting that Iraq’s Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani had made an unforgivable mistake.
He said the independence vote was unacceptable to Iraq’s neighbors.
He also said that the US, France and Israel were after disintegration of countries in the Middle East to reap their own benefits, adding that they sought the same plot for Syria.
The Turkish president also supported the goal of raising Turkish-Iranian trade volume to $30 billion.
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