Salehi criticizes western double-standards on terrorism

Foreign Minister, Ali-Akbar Salehi, on Friday harshly criticized Western double-standards on terrorism, saying Tehran and Ankara have had “constructive” cooperation in campaign against the phenomenon. Talking to IRNA upon arrival in Ankara, Salehi said, “Iran-Turkey ties are special in their kind as the two sides have special relations in the economic, commercial and cultural domains; fortunately, their trade ties are in a good process and volume of mutual transactions is predicted to hit 15 billion dollars.” He said there would be many important regional issues, including terrorism campaign, that would be discussed with the Turkish side. He pointed to the PKK terrorist attack on Turkish forces, which killed a number of the military, as an example of topics under discussion. Calling PKK and Pjak “terrorist”, Salehi said PKK is considered as terrorist by Europeans but due to double-standards it has not been put in the list of the terrorist groups. He hoped that talks between Iranian and Turkish officials would help the Middle East be called the region of peace, stability and security. Asked whether he carries any message to the Turkish leaders, Saleh said he would inform the Turkish officials of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s message of friendship. Furthermore, he said, he would submit the president’s message of condolence to the Turkish party on recent terrorist incident.