ANKARA
Muslim countries should cooperate with each other to fight conspiracies against them, Iran's ambassador to Turkey has said.
Ambassador Ali Reza Bikdeli made the remarks after meeting with members of Turkey’s Diplomatic Correspondents Association on Friday.
Bikdeli said that religion was not causing pain and suffering in Muslim countries. “Authoritarian and oppressive states use ethnic, sectarian and economic problems of countries and then try to maintain their dominance over the Islamic world,” the ambassador said, adding: “This is why we need to increase regional cooperation and integration”.
The ambassador also said that cooperation among Muslim countries would make them stronger, while struggling alone could only make them lose.
He also added that it was important for Turkey and Iran to put an emphasis on protection of the territorial integrity of Syria. “But this is not enough. We must help to start a dialogue in order for peace and stability to be established in the region,” he said.
The ambassador said that Iran was ready to cooperate with any country gripped by crisis “without preconditions” and reminded that despite its economic difficulties, it was one of the leading countries in terms of providing humanitarian aid to Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Syria has been gripped by violence since the Assad regime launched a crackdown in response to anti-government protests in March 2011, triggering a civil war in which more than 220,000 people have died so far.
