Iran has asked Turkey to help it resolve its 30-year dispute with the US as a possible prelude to re-establishing ties, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
Iranian officials made the request while former US president George W. 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 using the G20 summit in London in April to raise the matter with US President Barack Obama, who has said he wants to engage with Iran.
“Iran does want Turkey to play such a role. And if the United States also wants and asks us 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 ... I have told this to president Bush myself,” he said.
Iran and Turkey have drawn closer in recent years, helped by growing trade links. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Erdogan and Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Istanbul last August.
Meanwhile, Iran was testing its long-delayed first nuclear power plant yesterday as it pressed ahead with its controversial atomic drive despite international sanctions.
The head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Gholam Reza Aghazdeh, said the plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr could come on line within the next few months after Russia announced construction had been completed.
Iran is carrying out comprehensive tests of various equipment at the 1,000 megawatt plant, which officials said involve “virtual fuel,” not nuclear fuel rods.
“The construction stage of the nuclear power plant is over. We are now in the pre-commissioning stage, which is a combination of complex procedures,” the visiting head of the Russian nuclear agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, told reporters.
Iran’s IRNA news agency had reported on Tuesday that the two countries would announce a date for the plant to go operational during the pre-commissioning ceremony.
“One cannot determine an exact time for the commissioning and these tests, so it is possible that we could have the plant within the next few months,” Aghazdeh said on state TV.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: MOFA demanded Beijing stop its military intimidation and ‘irrational behavior’ that endanger peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region The Presidential Office yesterday called on China to stop all “provocative acts,” saying ongoing Chinese military activity in the nearby waters of Taiwan was a “blatant disruption” of the “status quo” of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Defense officials said they have detected Chinese ships since Monday, both off Taiwan and farther out along the first island chain. They described the formations as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well
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