Erdogan backs Iran in return for lira support

Mohamed Abdel Ghaffar

The UK, France, and Germany issued a joint statement on September 24, in which they accused Iran of standing behind an attack on two Saudi oil facilities earlier this month.

The accusation of the trio goes hand in hand with conclusions made by the US and Saudi Arabia on the same attacks.

Iran tried, however, to shrug off the same charges and accuse the Houthi militia, its arm in Yemen, of perpetrating the attacks.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at attempts to embroil Iran in the attacks.

He added in an interview with CNN on the sidelines of his participation at the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York that caution ought to be practiced when pointing accusing fingers at Iran in relation to the attacks.

“We need to confess that all parties in Yemen are capable of staging similar attacks,” Erdogan said.

He criticized the sanctions the US imposed on Iran, noting that these sanctions would not solve the problem.

Erdogan also denied reports that his country had helped Iran’s mullahs get around the US sanctions in the past.

Supporting Lira

Erdogan was apparently reciprocating to Iranian support to his country. The governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati said on September 25 that his country would start using the Turkish lira instead of the US dollar.

He added at a cabinet meeting that his country would use the lira in trade transactions with Turkey and Russia.

He added that 40% of his country’s trade transactions would be carried out with the national Iranian currency.

This comes at a time the Turkish lira suffers unprecedented devaluation. Wrong policies by the ruling Justice and Development Party have contributed to exacerbating Turkey’s economic crisis and scarring voters away from the party in the legislative elections in March this year.