Washington, December 08: US President Barack Obama has asked the Turkish prime minister to help resolve the impasse over Iran’s nuclear program.
Obama made the request during a meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the White House on Monday.
“I believe that Turkey can be an important player in trying to move Iran in that direction,” Obama said.
However, Turkish officials’ defense of Tehran’s nuclear program has raised concern in Washington and other Western capitals.
During a visit to Tehran in October, Erdogan said that Iran’s nuclear program is peaceful.
Obama says he stressed the importance of resolving the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program “in a way that allows Iran to pursue peaceful nuclear energy.”
Obama asked Erdogan to help solve the nuclear row 10 days after the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution calling on Iran to stop all construction work at its new uranium enrichment plant at Fordo and to confirm there are no more nuclear sites that the agency is not aware of.
However, the Iranian government said the resolution was politically motivated and has no legal basis since Iran’s activities are not in breach of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Following the ratification of the IAEA resolution, Iran declared that the country is in need of 20,000 megawatts of electricity for domestic use, which will require the construction of ten new uranium enrichment plants by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.
Erdogan told Obama that Turkey is ready to do whatever it can to help find a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
He played down concerns that Iran could be developing nuclear weapons and criticized the West for ignoring the threat posed by Israel’s nuclear activities.
–Agencies