Turkish Premier Warns Against Military Strike On Iran

[Purveyor]

Istanbul - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned against a military strike on Iran's controversial nuclear plants, according to Turkish media reports Monday. Such an attack would be "madness" and its terrible consequences would not just affect Iran, Turkish newspapers quoted Erdogan as saying.

Erdogan is to travel to Tehran next month for talks which will include discussion of Iran's nuclear programme. Turkey, a member of NATO, has good relations with neighbouring Iran.

Erdogan said that focusing nuclear discussions solely on Iran was not fair.

"We are completely against nuclear weapons in the Middle East," daily newspaper Radikal quoted the prime minister as saying at the end of his trip to the United States.

"But there is a country in the Middle East that possesses nuclear weapons: Israel. There is a difference, though; Israel is not a member of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), while Iran is."

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DPA: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/287518,turkish-premier-warns-against-military-strike-on-iran.html

[asjr]

1. Well, another precinct heard from.

[peacetalksforall]

2. If Turkey is sounding an alarm - there is a real probability. I am sick.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. There are two counties in the MIddle East that have nuclear weapons...

Israel and Pakistan.

So PM Erdogan must have mispoke.

Pakistsan is on the board of governors of the IAEA, even though they devleoped nuclear weapons in violation of the IAEA in 1998.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Pakistan isn't in the middle east.

You'd have to include India in the mix if you consider Pakistan in the middle-east.

[Ozymanithrax]

5. It depends on your source.

Pakaistan in about half the sources I've searched is considered part of the Middle East. The question still remains, Why isn't Pakistan part of the discussion. They have nuclear weapons developed in vioaltion of the IAEA, though now they are on the IAEA board.

Worldatalas.com (http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/me.htm) shows it as part of the middle east as do others.