Türkiye has warned that foreign military intervention in next-door Iran could further destabilise the region amid fears that the United States may be gearing up to strike the Islamic republic.
“We cannot ignore that the Iranian state and society are facing problems,” Omer Celik, a spokesman for Türkiye’s ruling AK Party, told reporters on Monday.
“But these problems should be resolved internally through the dynamics of Iranian society and the national will of the Iranian state,” he was quoted as saying by Türkiye’s state-run TRT news agency.
For the past two weeks, Iran has sought to contain a wave of anti-government protests and riots in different parts of the country.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if Iranian security forces employed deadly force against protesters.
“That doesn’t mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard,” Trump told reporters on Friday.
According to some Western rights groups, more than 500 people have been killed in Iran – and thousands more arrested – since the unrest began in late December.
The reported casualty figures, however, remain difficult to verify, especially after Tehran cut internet service countrywide last Thursday.
Tehran, for its part, has blamed foreign actors, especially the United States and Israel, for instigating what it describes as “terrorist acts” against Iranian security personnel and civilian infrastructure.
According to Iranian officials, scores of security personnel have been killed in the ongoing unrest.
On Tuesday, Iran’s state-run Press TV news agency quoted Police Chief Ahmadreza Radan as saying that “foreign-linked operatives” inside Iran had attacked mosques, private homes, and public property.
But given the chaotic state of affairs, the Iranian claims have not been independently verified.
Celik, Türkiye’s AK Party spokesman, warned that foreign military intervention in Iran would lead to “worse consequences,” adding that intervention “provoked by Israel” would lead to “even greater crises.”
On Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that ongoing protests and riots inside Iran were being exploited by Tehran’s foreign adversaries.
Israel, which fought a 12-day war with Iran last summer, is “trying to take advantage of this,” Fidan said in remarks to Turkish media.
Last year’s conflict between Israel and Iran ended with a U.S. strike on the latter, which Trump claimed had “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear program.
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Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday as part of efforts to reach a deal between the U.S. and Iran, according to an official briefed on the talks.
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People travelling between Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan could soon be able to pay for purchases using their usual banking apps. Central banks from the five countries are working on linking their national payment systems.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
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