Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, believes that the ceasefire with Iran can hold despite US President Donald Trump’s claim that it was “over”.
In an exclusive interview following the Nato summit in Ankara, Mr Fidan called Iran’s recent actions “retaliation”, telling On the Record with Hadley Gamble that he believed what happened was a miscommunication.
“I think there was a lack of communications and misunderstanding between both sides in terms of how to implement the passage through the strait,” he said, adding that a conversation by phone with his Iranian counterpart late on Thursday left him with “a deeper understanding of the root of the problem”. The solution, he said, was de-escalation.
“Both sides genuinely want to have the ceasefire and to move ahead with the peace agreement,” he said. “Nevertheless, there is always a percentage of accident possible, and because of miscommunications or provocations and retaliations, we have to be very careful.”
The sharpest part of the interview was reserved for Israel. Mr Fidan directly accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political supporters of needing an external enemy as Israeli elections approach, and warned that Israeli policy is a liability for the entire region.
“The policies of Netanyahu’s government are not only a problem for us,” he said. “His policies and his government are a burden for Israel, a burden for the region, and a burden and threat for international security.”
Pressed on whether recent rhetoric could lead to an open Turkey-Israel clash, Mr Fidan was clear.
“There is no reason to have an open conflict,” he said. He echoed Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte’s assessment that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s President, “is a leader of peace and wisdom” who “wouldn’t be baited into anything”.
Mr Fidan said that while European leaders were beginning to recognise the danger of Israel, they had not yet found ways of dealing with the problem, warning that attempts to destabilise the progress made in Syria could change that.
“We are not sure if Israel wants to see a stable, good, powerful, evolving, developed Syria,” he said.
Asked directly if Israel was trying to destabilise the new government in Damascus, he replied: “When you look at the past and current patterns of the Israeli government towards the regional countries, yes.”
On Gaza, Mr Fidan said the Trump-backed “Board of Peace” had been “instrumental in stopping the genocide”, but had not yet delivered on promised aid.
“In terms of seeing the deliverables that are promised by the plan itself, especially seeing the people that they are getting enough military assistance, shelter and medicine, I think in that part the plan has not fully succeeded yet.”
He said attention had shifted elsewhere because of the war in the Gulf and that “we need to get more pressure from the international community to put on Israel to let Palestinians get more international humanitarian aid”.
His comments come on the heels of the successful Nato summit in Ankara, where both Mr Trump and Mr Rutte praised Mr Erdogan as a wise leader who prefers conciliation to conflict. Mr Fidan said Turkey is uniquely positioned to mediate regional disputes precisely because of its history.
“We know everybody, we know the dynamics of every conflict,” he said. “So, I think we are best positioned to really understand [what is happening] and how to help stop them.”
“It is time for the region to have to shoulder the problems of our region, and to show ownership. With the old understanding, we will get both implementations and policies [that fail]”.
The alternative, he said, is a new security arrangement that guarantees “safety, security, political sovereignty, and territorial integrity of every party in the region”.
Earlier this year, Turkey along with Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia formed a working group meant to build “a new order in our region based on peace”, Mr Fidan said. He said it was not intended to replace the Arab League or the GCC, but to work faster.
“They are too formal,” he said of the existing institutions. “To have a good decision or permanent decision from a formal organisation is very difficult.”
Turkey’s top diplomat also said that while he is cautiously optimistic about Iraq’s new Prime Minister, any real progress there must address Iran’s stranglehold on the country. The same goes for tackling Iran’s proxies in the region, Hezbollah and Hamas.
“We need to go back to a situation where the sovereignty and territorial integrity of every nation is fully recognised,” he said. “Iran has claimed for a long time that it was a pre-emptive security policy that they've been taking by having [proxies] in these countries, just like the Israelis are occupying the rest of the region as part of security.
“If we get a new security understanding, which would guarantee safety, security, political sovereignty, and territorial integrity of every party in the region, with a new understanding, I think it should tell Iran, look, we can go back to our corners.”
“My belief, Iran is mature enough to understand all these realities, so hopefully if we reach a peace agreement between United States and Iran, then we can really start having healthy discussions.
“I think we have to be frank, transparent and sincere in defining and communicating our problems at this time and finding them a solution.”
