The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, stated this Saturday (the 19th) that new proposals have been presented to the United States and Iran, amid the impasse in negotiations between the two countries. In an interview with the Turkish broadcaster NTV, the foreign minister said that Ankara is concentrating its efforts so that the talks may advance.
“We are concentrating all our efforts so that the negotiations between the United States and Iran reach a result,” Fidan said. According to him, there is “great distrust between the parties.”
The minister said that Americans and Iranians had reached an understanding in Pakistan, but that later problems in implementation led the two sides to interpret the process differently.
The United States and Iran reached a provisional agreement in June, with Pakistan’s mediation, to halt the war and move forward with negotiations on issues still pending. Since then, however, the talks have faced divergences over the implementation of the understanding.
“There are new proposals presented to the parties. I hope they accept them,” Fidan said. The foreign minister did not detail the content nor indicate who presented the proposals. He only said that he had held, this Saturday, several conversations with people involved in the mediation and with the parties.
The statements were given in response to a question about the escalation of clashes between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis in Yemen. Fidan linked the worsening regional crisis to the impasse between Washington and Tehran and stated that the tension has also begun to affect Bab el-Mandeb, the strait between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, one of the main maritime routes between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. According to him, the crisis has been expanding toward Saudi Arabia and becoming “increasingly more complex.”
The minister also warned about the economic effects of the continuation of the conflicts. “They are already beginning to exceed what some countries can bear,” he stated, citing impacts in Europe, in Asia-Pacific, and in Africa.
Fidan also mentioned the war between Russia and Ukraine. “In the war between Russia and Ukraine, there are also attacks on energy infrastructure. There is a serious bottleneck in energy routes,” he said. According to the chancellor, the combination of crises increases pressure on energy-import-dependent countries, such as Turkey itself.
