Mottaki, addressing a security conference in Bahrain on Saturday, also cast further doubt on a UN-drafted nuclear fuel deal meant to allay international concerns about the Islamic Republic’s atomic ambitions.
When asked in Manama if Saudi Arabia or Turkey should join talks between Iran and the six major powers -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- Mottaki said: “There is no limit to the members of 5+1. We believe other countries from the region could participate in the talks.”
His comments came after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said last week during an interview broadcast on Bloomberg Television that Ankara could play “a very important role between Iran and countries of the world.”
Erdoğan’s remarks came following a meeting last Monday with US President Barack Obama during which the two also had talks on Iran’s nuclear program. Philip H. Gordon, the assistant secretary for European and Eurasian affairs at the US State Department, who participated in White House talks between the US and Turkish officials, touched upon the issue on Wednesday, calling what appeared to be the diverging approaches of the two NATO allies toward Iran’s nuclear program “a tactical difference.”
