TURKEY’S PM DISMISSES NUCLEAR CLAIMS ON IRAN AS RUMOUR
March 17 2010
Turkey
Erdogan said it was not right to manipulate the issue as if "Iran
desired to possess nuclear weapons".
Turkey’s prime minister said Tuesday there was no definite report
showing that Iran would acquire nuclear weapons.
In an interview with British broadcaster BBC’s Nik Gowing, Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Iran had consistently stated
that it was seeking to use nuclear energy for civilian purposes.
Erdogan said it was not right to manipulate the issue as if "Iran
desired to possess nuclear weapons".
Noting he had personally warned Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad
several times and told him that Turkey did not want any nuclear weapons
in its region, Erdogan said the Iranian leader said that his country
did not have an intention to produce nuclear weapons.
Upon a question on whether he believed Ahmedinejad, Erdogan said
neither the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nor intelligence
organizations had certain reports on such matter.
"These are all rumours. Because, nothing like that has happened. So,
it is meaningless to discuss it," he said.
In his reply to a question on whether Turkey’s EU membership process
lost velocity, Erdogan said the process did not slow down.
Expressing Turkey’s determination for the opening of the remaining
chapters in its EU process, Erdogan said, "Turkey will continue to
walk towards EU in a determined way as long as the union does not
close its doors to Turkey".
Commenting on whether a U.S. congressional committee’s recent adoption
of a resolution on 1915 incidents would harm Turkish-U.S. relations,
Erdogan said he still believed and confided in USA.
Noting that such development would not do harm relations between
the two countries, Erdogan said ties between Turkey and USA were not
connected to relations with Armenia.