“The ground in the Middle East is extremely slippery. There is almost no process that is working. It has almost been two years since [US President Barack] Obama took office, and there are problems waiting for solutions. There are no parties in our region that are able talk to each other,” Davutoğlu said late on Saturday, while speaking to a group of journalists on board a plane en route to Turkey from Kyrgyzstan where he participated in an inauguration ceremony during which Kyrgyzstan’s provisional leader Roza Otunbayeva was sworn in as president earlier on Saturday.
Davutoğlu’s remarks echoed Ankara’s stance saying that ending Israel’s blockade of Gaza is an emergency step but that it is not sufficient on its own. Ankara constantly says that all channels regarding the Middle East peace process -- Palestine-Israel, Syria-Israel, Lebanon-Syria, Lebanon-Israel and Palestine-Palestine -- should be opened.
“We wanted to balance the regional conjuncture via a Tehran deal, yet our concerns have not been sufficiently understood,” Davutoğlu said, referring to a deal jointly brokered by Turkey and Brazil to pave the way for resolving an international dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
Turkey, Brazil and Iran announced the deal on May 17 in Tehran. Under the agreement, Iran agreed to send 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey in return for uranium enriched up to 20 percent, for use in a nuclear research reactor. But the deal failed to prevent a new round of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council on Iran.
“There is a process working in the region. We didn’t want Iran to be an addition to these kinds of processes. In such a picture, efforts for mediation are not eagerness. The ground is floating in many areas; there is a need to be careful. This summer worries me. There is only Turkey, which can positively intervene in these areas,” Davutoğlu said, while voicing hope that each party involved in the May 17 deal would remain committed to the process with a strong will.
