IRAN SOUGHT TURKEY’S HELP TO MEND LINKS WITH US, SAYS ERDOGAN
Robert Tait in Mardin

guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 24 February 2009 17.45 GMT

Turkish prime minister tells Guardian of Tehran’s request for
intercession with Bush administration

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a debate
with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Photograph: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty
Images Photograph: BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

Iran has asked Turkey to help it resolve its 30-year dispute with the
US as a possible prelude to re-establishing ties, the Turkish prime
minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has told the Guardian.

Iranian officials made the request while George Bush was in office,
Erdogan said, adding that he had passed the message to the White
House at the time.

He said he was considering raising the matter with Barack Obama,
who has said he wants to engage with Iran at a G20 summit in London
in April.

Speaking aboard his prime ministerial plane during a local election
campaign trip to the south-eastern city of Mardin, Erdogan also renewed
his criticism of Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza and challenged the
Israeli prime minister-designate, Binyamin Netanyahu, to recognise
Palestinians’ right to have their own state.

Asked if Turkey could play a mediating role in overcoming mistrust
between Washington and Tehran, Erdogan replied: "Iran does want Turkey
to play such a role. And if the United States also wants and asks=2 0us
to play this role, we are ready to do this. They [the Iranians] said
to us that if something like this [an opportunity for rapprochement]
would happen, they want Turkey to play a role. These were words that
were said openly. But I have told this to President Bush myself."

Erdogan’s remarks came as the US state department finally appointed
the veteran Clinton administration diplomat Dennis Ross as a special
envoy responsible for tackling the difficult Iran issue. Ross, whose
experience has been in dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
has been given the title of special adviser to the Gulf and south-west
Asia. In an article published last September, Ross advocated that
the initial approach to Iran should be through a "direct, secret
back channel".

Iran and Turkey have drawn closer in recent years, helped by growing
trade links last year estimated at £5.5bn. Iran’s president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, met Erdogan and the Turkish president, Abdullah Gul,
in Istanbul last August, and several Turkish officials have also
visited Iran in recent months to boost economic ties. Turkey imports
one-third of its natural gas from Iran and has signed preliminary
agreements to invest heavily in the Iranian gas industry.

US officials have previously reacted sceptically to Turkish
proposals to mediate with Iran. However, the idea may be given fresh
consideration by the Obama administration, which has set up a sweeping
polic y review policy after the president promised to reach out if Iran
"unclenched its fist".

Turkey, a Nato member and close ally of the US, shares Washington’s
misgivings about Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is
for peaceful purposes but which the west suspects is aimed at building
an atomic bomb.

Acting as a go-between for Iran would fit with the regional mediator
role Turkey has fashioned for itself under Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted
Justice and Development party (AKP) government. Last year, Ankara
brokered peace talks between Israel and Syria, using its western
alliance membership and status as a Muslim country to win the trust
of each side.

But Turkey’s ties with Israel were severely strained by Erdogan’s
fierce criticism of the recent bombardment of Gaza, which left more
than 1,300 Palestinians dead. Relations soured further after he
stormed out of a debate at the world economic forum in Davos after
clashing angrily with the Israeli president, Shimon Peres. The gesture
was widely acclaimed in Turkey and throughout the Muslim world but
was condemned in Israel, where Erdogan was seen as an apologist for
the Palestinian militant group Hamas, with which his government has
cultivated ties.

However, in comments likely to provoke further anger, Erdogan drew
parallels between Hamas’s failure to recognise Israel and the refusal
of Netanyahu, who has been asked to form the next Israeli government,
to endorse=2 0a Palestinian state. "We are always telling them
[Hamas)]to act differently, that we are for a two-state solution:
Palestine and Israel," he said. "They have to accept this, but Israel
also has to accept Palestine.

"Is Israel right now accepting Palestine? They are still not accepting
them.

But it is being expected of the Palestinian people to accept
Israel. Now go and ask Mr Netanyahu if he is accepting Palestine."

Netanyahu has pledged to pursue "economic peace" with the Palestinians
but has ruled out territorial concessions that would lead to statehood.

Erdogan said an Israeli-Palestinian settlement had to include Hamas,
which he called the party of "change and reform". He also condemned
Israel’s recent onslaught as disproportionate. "Hamas doesn’t have
any planes. Hamas doesn’t have any tanks or artillery, and with
the use of disproportionate force Gaza was being put under fire,"
he said. "One thousand, one hundred and 30people have died. We have
more than 5,500 injured. Who is going to ask: what has happened here
and who is going to pay the price for this?"

His walkout at Davos, when he also clashed with the debate moderator,
David Ignatius of the Washington Post, was inspired by his conscience,
he said, and a desire to "be the voice of the voiceless and the
protector of the people who cannot protect themselves".

Erdogan dismissed fears that the US pro-Israel lobby would retaliate
by lifting its oppos ition to a congressional resolution recognising
the Armenian genocide claims. During last year’s US presidential
election campaign, Obama and his vice-president, Joe Biden, voiced
support for the resolution.

But Erdogan said: "I believe the United States feels and knows the
importance of Turkey within the region more than some people who
do not understand this. The so-called Armenian genocide is not an
issue that can affect Turkey-American relations in a very strong
way. I don’t believe the US Congress would take a decision based on
emotions. It should be left to historians."

Allegations by the Armenian government and diaspora about the fate of
their people under the Ottoman empire have long been one of Turkish
society’s biggest taboos. Turkey vehemently disputes Armenian claims
that up to 1.5 million were deliberately killed in a programme
amounting to genocide.

Officials say the death toll was much lower and a result of
inter-ethnic clashes in which many Turks also died. Turkey has
called for a historical commission to examine the issue and has
recently pursued rapprochement with Armenia, with which it has no
diplomatic ties.