While Iran and six major world powers led by the US reached an agreement on Tuesday, limiting Iran's nuclear ability significantly in exchange for lifting international oil and financial sanctions, Turkish officials immediately welcomed the deal, which is expected to boost Turkey's trade with Iran and contribute peace in the region.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimsek posted in English on his personal Twitter account that the "Iran nuclear deal is great news for the Turkish economy. It's likely to boost trade and investments between the two countries."
After days of negotiations in Vienna, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif agreed on the most contentious issues and decided that an arms embargo on conventional weapons and missiles would remain for eight years and that a similar ban on the purchase and sale of missiles would be removed in five years.
Iranians agreed on a ban on designing warheads and testing them that would contribute to the manufacture of a nuclear weapon for at least a decade.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the full implementation of the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers is of vital importance for peace, security and stability in the region. The Foreign Ministry stressed that it welcomed the deal and congratulated the parties involved, saying it expected cooperation to be put into practice with full transparency in supervising the deal.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday the lifting of sanctions on Iran would contribute to the regional economy and would have a direct impact on Turkey. Speaking at a news conference in Ankara, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said that achieving the deal and its implementation were necessary to bring stability to the region.
Speaking to Today's Zaman, Sinan Ülgen, a former Turkish diplomat who chairs the İstanbul-based think tank Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM), said Iran's nuclear deal with the major Western powers is very positive both for Turkey and for regional peace. According to the final agreement, Ülgen said the West has achieved what it wanted to get from Iran, which is to prevent Iran having the capacity to build a nuclear weapon for a significant period of time.
"This agreement has removed the option of a military intervention to Iran by the US or Israel. Turkey has been supporting a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear issue and, in the end, the problem has been solved through diplomacy," Ülgen said.
He stressed that a nuclear Iran is not something that Turkey would like to see in the region because it would shift the sensitive balance of power in favor of Iran. Ülgen said, finally, with the deal Turkey will be able to boost its trade with Iran and this will be advantageous for the Turkish economy. He also pointed out that Turkey may turn into an energy hub, with the natural gas that it would take from Iran and sell to the European markets.
Ülgen said that one possible disadvantage of the deal may be that Iran will become a more daring and aggressive actor in the region with regards to Syria and Iraq. But he also stressed that the deal is not enough to solve the problems between Iran and the West.
Veteran Turkish diplomat and former deputy for the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Faruk Loğoğlu told Today's Zaman that Iran's nuclear agreement with the West is a "welcome and positive development and good news for Iran, the region and the international community."
He said that, once again, long and arduous negotiations proved that diplomacy works to solve problems.
Loğoğlu said Iran, along with other regional powers, including Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is responsible for ending sectarian polarization in the Middle East and that the agreement is an opportunity for Iran to work for regional stability and peace.
He stressed that if Iran follows the right policies, the entire region will benefit from that positively.
US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said on Tuesday that the deal stops all Iran's pathways to nuclear weapons and increases pressure on the country to stop its support of terrorism and other destabilizing activities. "This is a very good deal," Rice said.
In the meantime, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has dismissed that Iran sought to make nuclear weapons under its nuclear energy program. Speaking live on TV, Rouhani said Iran has never sought to manufacture nuclear weapons and will never seek to manufacture nuclear weapons. He said the whole world knows very well that manufacturing a nuclear bomb is considered forbidden.