Turkey: No nuke alliance with Iran

Turkey has no plans for cooperation with Iran to build nuclear power plants, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said yesterday, a day after a senior Iranian official had floated the possibility.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a foreign affairs adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said in New York on Nov. 15 that the Islamic Republic was willing to share its nuclear technology with neighboring countries, suggesting it could help Turkey build an atomic power plant. “Iran is an important neighboring country.

We have oil and gas trade, but cooperation in the area of nuclear power stations is not currently on our agenda,” Yıldız told reporters.

Larijani said that Iran was ready to share its nuclear capability with neighbors and friendly countries in the region. “Turkey is for years trying to have a nuclear power plant but no country in the West is willing to build that for them,” Larijani said, adding that Iran did not have a “concrete proposal” for nuclear cooperation with Turkey or another state.