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Istanbul, Turkey,
- The Iranian ambassador to Ankara urged Turkey,
Iran and Syria to form a joint policy on the Kurdish
issue, saying in an interview published yesterday
that if they did not, "the United States will carve
pieces from us for a Kurdish state."
Turkey, Syria and Iran share borders and have large
Kurdish populations that separatist militants would
like to see as part of an independent Kurdish state.
The remarks by Ambassador Firouz Dowlatabadi were
published in an interview with Turkeys Milliyet
daily and confirmed by the Iranian Embassy in
Ankara.
"Turkey, Iran and Syria need to form a joint policy
on the Kurd and Iraq issues. If there is a void
between Turkey, Iran and Syria on this subject, the
United States will enter the void and fill the
space," he said. "The United States will carve
pieces out of us for a Kurdish state."
Dowlatabadi said the United States was trying to
create friction between Iran and Turkey, despite
what he called their more than 1,100-year-old
friendship, because the United States preferred the
region to be full of small ethnic states that it
could control.
"The United States is trying to prevent the
development and strengthening of relations between
Turkey and Iran. It's trying to bring the two
countries into conflict," he said.
Dowlatabadi said the United States, which recently
announced publicly that it was pouring money into
supporting regime change in Iran, was following the
same principles it was after the Iranian Revolution.
AP
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