Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Turkey´s President Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Wednesday to improve ties, including in the fight against terrorism, IRNA news agency said, following some angry exchanges between the regional rivals.
Last month Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu both accused Iran of trying to destabilize Syria and Iraq and of sectarianism, prompting Tehran to summon Ankara´s ambassador.
Erdogan and Rouhani met on the sideline of Economic Cooperation Summit in Islamabad, IRNA said, though it gave no details of their talks.
In another conciliatory move by Turkey, Cavusoglu told IRNA in an interview published on Wednesday that Ankara had appreciated Tehran´s expressions of support for the government during a failed military coup against Erdogan on July 15, 2016. “Iran was with us to support our government in every minute at that night while some other countries only called us days or even weeks after the attempted coup,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Last week Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had called Turkey an ungrateful neighbour. “They (Turkey) accuse us of sectarianism but don´t remember we didn´t sleep on the night of the coup,” he said.
Source: Agencies