No change in visit to Tehran: Turkish President Erdoğan

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has denied that any change has been made to his scheduled visit to Tehran, despite calls from the Iranian parliament to cancel the visit after his criticism of Iran’s “interference” in Yemen.

“Two different voices came from Iran. First, a commission at parliament, a deputy chairman [spoke] … But they are not my interlocutors ... They are not the ones deciding on our visit. It’s us who will decide whether to go or not. We maintain our schedule, but [we are] following developments in Yemen,” Erdoğan told reporters on March 30 before departing for Slovenia.

Erdoğan called for the “respect and preservation” of Yemen’s territorial integrity and warned against “internal or foreign intervention” in the country.

“We stressed that those who are interfering in Yemen should leave the country,” he said.

“Developments in Yemen are very crucial for us. Any steps are possible for every kind of decision that we can take. But there is no change in our schedule [for Iran] at the moment,” Erdoğan added.

President Erdogan had accused Iran on March 26 of “trying to dominate the Middle East” and said its efforts had begun to annoy Ankara, as well as Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab countries.

Following his criticism of Iran, where he is scheduled to arrive on April 5, Muhammed Mehdi Zahidi from the Iranian parliament called for the cancellation of the visit.