Zarif Tries to Defuse Tensions with Ankara

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference in Tehran, June 10, 2019. AP
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference in Tehran, June 10, 2019. AP
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Zarif Tries to Defuse Tensions with Ankara

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference in Tehran, June 10, 2019. AP
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks during a press conference in Tehran, June 10, 2019. AP

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met Turkish officials in Istanbul on Friday as the two regional powers tried to move past tensions sparked by the deaths of Turkish captives in Iraq.

Zarif and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed Syria and the ongoing Afghan peace talks as well as trade and the fight against terror, the two counties' foreign ministries said in separate statements.

Turkey's spy chief Hakan Fidan also attended the meeting.

Turkey and Iran, at odds over regional issues including Syria, became entangled in a diplomatic spat in February over Ankara's military operations against Kurdish militants in Iraq.

Turkey accused Kurdish militants of killing 12 Turks and an Iraqi they were holding hostage in northern Iraq.

The Kurdish militants said the 13 were killed by Turkish bombs during a failed rescue operation launched by Ankara.

The incident prompted Iran's envoy to Baghdad, Iraj Masjedi, to warn that Turkish forces should not "pose a threat or violate Iraqi soil," where Iran's influence is strong.

The incident prompted Turkey and Iran to each summon the other's ambassador.

Both Ankara and Tehran have carried out operations against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, and are vying for influence in the war-torn country.

Militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, are blacklisted as a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies.

Zarif last visited Istanbul on January 29, when Turkey urged the United States to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement that saw Washington lift some sanctions on Tehran in exchange for Iran limiting its ambitions to develop a bomb.



Biden Says US Secret Service Needs More Help

President Joe Biden speaks about the economy during a meeting with CEOs in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington,July 28, 2022. (AP)
President Joe Biden speaks about the economy during a meeting with CEOs in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington,July 28, 2022. (AP)
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Biden Says US Secret Service Needs More Help

President Joe Biden speaks about the economy during a meeting with CEOs in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington,July 28, 2022. (AP)
President Joe Biden speaks about the economy during a meeting with CEOs in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington,July 28, 2022. (AP)

The US Secret Service needs more help, President Joe Biden said on Monday after an apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was thwarted over the weekend, Reuters reported.

Biden, speaking to reporters, said he did not yet have a full report of the Sunday incident at Trump's Florida golf course and that he was thankful the former president was ok.

Meanwhile, Ryan Routh, the reported suspect in the assassination attempt on Trump, has entered a federal courtroom in West Bank Palm Beach, Florida, a CNN reporter said on social media.
Routh was wearing dark prison scrubs and his hands and feet were shackled, the reporter said.