Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in separate telephone conversations with his Turkish and Indonesian counterparts Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Retno Marsudi conferred on the recent developments in region following the decision of a number of Arab states to cut diplomatic relations with Qatar.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates announced that they had broken diplomatic ties with Qatar. The decision was made with allegations by Saudi Arabia in a statement via its state-run Saudi Press Agency that Qatar harbors “a multitude of terrorist and sectarian groups that aim to create instability in the region".
Qatar's foreign ministry has called the move a pretext to impose guardianship on the state, with “no legitimate justification" and “based on claims and allegations that have no basis in fact.”
Reacting to the move, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said the visit of US President Trump to Saudi Arabia was the cause of further tension among regional countries.
Spokesman of Foreign Ministry of Iran Bahram Ghasemi also reacted to the measure, voicing concern over the latest developments in the relations of the Persian Gulf states and hoping for settlement of differences among the regional countries.
Further news on Mr. Zarif’s discussions with the Turkish and Indonesian ministers will be later published.
Also in a tweet on Monday evening, Zarif stressed that "neighbors are permanent; geography can't be changed. Coercion is never the solution. Dialog is imperative, especially during blessed Ramadan."
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