Turkish PM in Tehran for Two-Day Visit
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a two-day visit focused on talks about Iran's nuclear policy and ties, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Erdogan, who was greeted at the airport by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, flew in from South Korea, where he had attended a nuclear security summit with other world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama.
He was accompanied by a large delegation that included the Turkish ministers for foreign affairs, energy, economy, and urban development and the environment.
Turkish intelligence and military officials, and the head of Turkey's Atomic Energy Organization, Zafer Alper, were also with him.
Erdogan was to hold talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, IRNA said.
Discussions were to concentrate on Iran's nuclear program, the conflict in Syria, regional issues and bilateral relations, it said.
Turkey has proposed to host the next round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group comprising the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany.
Those talks, expected to take place within weeks, carry hopes of defusing a tense international showdown over Iran's nuclear activities that has sent oil prices soaring.
Israel brandished the threat of possible military action, and the United States has never ruled out the option.
The last round of Iran/P5+1 talks, held in Istanbul in January 2011, collapsed.
Turkey, a NATO member that has agreed to host facilities for a missile shield that could be used against Iran, has refused to go along with Western sanctions on Iran that would curb vital oil imports from its neighbor.
The United States and Europe have been stepping up their pressure on Iran in an effort to get it to give up uranium enrichment, which they fear could be used in nuclear weapons they suspect Iran of researching.
Tehran has reacted defiantly by increasing enrichment and announcing other atomic progress, while insisting its nuclear program is exclusively peaceful.
Source: Agence France Presse
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