Turkey 'deeply concerned' by rising tensions between U.S., Iran
Turkey on Friday voiced concern over the U.S.-Iran row in the wake of the killing of a top Iranian commander in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, warning the move will escalate “mistrust and instability” in the region, Anadolu Agency reported.
“Turkey is deeply concerned by escalating tensions in the region between the U.S. and Iran,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“It is obvious that the U.S. airstrike targeting the convoy of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force, and the people along with him in Baghdad early on Friday will escalate mistrust and instability in the region,” the statement said.
The United States confirmed that it carried out a strike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad.
The Defense Department said it killed Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region."
The U.S. strike also killed Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a senior commander of Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The Turkish statement strongly warned that turning Iraq into a conflict zone will harm peace and stability both in the country and in the region.
“Turkey has always been against foreign interventions, assassinations and sectarian conflicts in the region,” the ministry said.
Turkey further warned that such steps escalating tension and threatening stability in the region “will grow the spiral of violence and all parties will suffer from it.”
The statement called on all parties to act in common sense and sobriety, and said unilateral steps that would jeopardize the regional peace and stability should be avoided, letting the diplomacy prevail.
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