Amman, December 02: Turkish President Abdullah Gul called Tuesday for a Middle East free of all weapons of mass destruction and a “diplomatic” solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We don’t want to see any mass destruction arms in our region from any source,” Gul said in an interview with the state-run Jordan Television.
Though he was responding to a question about Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, Gul was also alluding to Israel, which is widely believed to possess nuclear arms and has refused to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
He made it clear that Turkey was against Iran’s possession of nuclear arms, though he said, “There is no hope that Iran can possess nuclear arms in such a short period of time.”
“Therefore, Iran should be serious over reaching infallible solutions for this issue, and we are talking with the Iranians in this respect,” Gul said.
“But if the nuclear energy is used for peaceful purposes, then Iran and any other state in the region has the right to do so.”
Gul said that differences between Iran and Western powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme “should be resolved through diplomatic channels and dialogue.”
“We are doing our utmost in this direction in order to contain this crisis and facilitate reaching solutions that avert the region any crises,” he said.
Gul arrived earlier Tuesday in Amman on a three-day state visit.
He called for taking advantage of US President Barack Obama’s commitment to finding a solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“We find an opportunity in Barack’s policies that should be seized. The Palestinians should unite, and states of the region should team up to support such policies,” Gul said, speaking in Turkish through a translator into Arabic.
Gulf said that there was no chance for a solution to materialize in the region without the establishment of an “independent Palestinian state that lives in peace with Israel.”
–Agencies