Zarif Hails Erdogan’s ‘Illuminating’ Remarks on Iraq Protests

He made the comments in a Saturday meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu have met on the sidelines of the 24th Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers (COM) in the Turkish city of Antalya.

In the meeting, the two sides conferred on issues of bilateral interest including Tehran-Ankara ties, regional developments, and the two countries’ cooperation within the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

During the talks, the Iranian top diplomat appreciated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent illuminating remarks about the developments in Iraq.

In his remarks on Friday, President Erdogan referred to hidden plots behind the recent developments in Iraq and said they are aimed at disintegrating the Muslim world and pitting Islamic countries against each other.

In his remarks on Friday, President Erdogan said “what makes us worry about the problems of people who are thousands or tens of thousands of kilometres away from our country is Islam as a common denominator and the consciousness of being an Ummah.”

“Universal Muslim fellowship has no limits. No one can sow discord among us,” Anadolu news agency quoted him as saying.

Erdоgаn also speculated that he knows who is behind the recent anti-establishment uprising in Iraq, and they probably planned to spread the protests into Iran.

Referring to the anti-Islamic Republic slogans protesters chant in Iraq’s mainly Shiite populated regions, as well as the attack on Tehran’s consulate in the city of Karbala, Erdogan argued, “We can guess who is behind the unrest in Iraq. Our analysis points to the fact that spreading the protests into Iran is on their agenda.”