No Change In My Visit To Tehran: Turkish President Erdoğan

- Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan has said there was no change to his scheduled visit to Tehran at the moment, despite calls from the Iranian parliament to cancel the visit after his criticism of Iran’s interference in Yemen.

“Two different voices came out from Iran. First, a commission at the parliament, a deputy chairman… They are not my interlocutors... They are not the ones deciding on our visit. It’s us that will decide whether to go or not. We maintain our schedule, but [are] following Yemen as well” Erdoğan told reporters on March 30 before he departed for Slovenia.

Erdoğan called for the respect and preservation of Yemen’s territorial integrity and issued a warning against “internal or foreign intervention” in the country.

“Therefore, we stressed those who are interfering in Yemen should leave the country,” he said.

“Developments in Yemen are very crucial for us. Any steps are possible for every kind of decision that we can take. But there is no change in our schedule [for Iran] at the moment” Erdoğan said.

Erdogan had accused Iran on March 26 of trying to dominate the Middle East and said its efforts had begun annoying Ankara, as well as Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab countries.

Following his criticism towards Iran, where the president plans to visit on April 5, Muhammed Mehdi Zahidi from the Iranian parliament called for the cancellation of Erdoğan’s visit.