Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Tuesday that Iran’s strategy of bombing all Gulf countries “without making any distinction” was “an incredibly wrong strategy.”
In an interview with state news broadcaster TRT Haber, Fidan addressed the tense regional situation that erupted after the US and Israel launched military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, and said the region was going through “extremely critical” days.
He said the region has suffered major pain and wars over the past 20 years, adding that the latest conflict was not confined to Iran alone.
“When we look at the effects of the war, as we had predicted earlier, it is spreading across the entire region,” he said.
President Donald Trump announced on Saturday the launch of Operation Epic Fury, killing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and top military officials.
Tehran has responded with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Gulf countries, which are home to US assets.
Fidan said that when Tehran perceives an existential threat, it adopts an approach of “if I go down, I will take the region with me,” targeting other countries in the region, particularly their energy infrastructure.
“Iran knows very well how vital the energy infrastructure in key regional countries is for the global economy, stability and energy security, and it carries out its attacks accordingly,” he added.
Fidan noted that as Iran comes under attack, it seeks to exert pressure through such actions, adding that how long the war will last remains controversial and open to various assessments.
“The crucial point here is: What are the aims of the attacking parties? What are they targeting? Two main sets of objectives emerge. The first is a military, professional assessment related to eliminating Iran’s military capabilities. The view is that we will continue this operation until we achieve this goal.
“On the other hand, there is a perspective of a military operation aimed at regime change. The duration of the war, its form, its spread, and the risks it poses will all change according to these two objectives. These are two very different concepts,” he said.
Fidan said efforts were underway to form a common position with certain countries, adding: “As a region, we are working on how to prevent this situation from getting worse.”
Pointing out that many Gulf countries worked to prevent the conflict from breaking out, Fidan said Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister was still trying to avert it up to an hour before the attack.
“They were actually acting in a way that would have benefited Iran. Despite this, Iran’s bombing of Oman as a mediator, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan — all of these places without making any distinction — is, in my view, an incredibly wrong strategy,” he said.
Fidan said such actions “significantly” increase regional risks and were also wrong both from the perspectives of regional friendly countries and of Iran. He added that Türkiye also considers this “as something that is wrong.”
The foreign minister said that ahead of the war, Türkiye held talks both with Iranians and the US.
Referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s call with his American counterpart Donald Trump on Jan. 27, Fidan said at that time, the US was on the verge of making a decision regarding the attack.
Fidan also noted that he had hosted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Istanbul on Jan. 30.
After talks with both of the parties, Fidan said the Americans wanted to resolve the issue by imposing four demands on the Iranians, but that this was not something the Iranians wanted.
“We said, ‘You discuss two (demands), and we, as regional countries, will discuss the other two.’ We actually created this discussion architecture beforehand. When we explained this to the Americans, they said ‘okay.'”
According to Fidan, Araghchi initially said he would seek approval from Tehran’s decision-making authorities. After consultations, however, Iran reverted to its previous negotiation format.
He noted that in early February, what appeared to be imminent war was temporarily avoided. “As of that moment, there was no war,” he said, recalling public remarks he made around Feb. 8 or 9.
The minister said discussions between Iranian and American officials had taken place on various dates, adding that even if one side rejected the other’s position, Washington should have formally declared its withdrawal from talks rather than allow ambiguity to linger.
After the Feb. 27 talks, Fidan said he spoke separately with all three sides and concluded that developments were not moving in a positive direction. He relayed his concerns directly to Erdoğan.
He emphasized that Iran’s preferred solution and timeline differed significantly from what the US needed, particularly under mounting military and political pressure.
“On the one hand, there is immense pressure from Israel. I believe that if the Iranians had better understood the decision-making pressure President Trump was facing and offered something earlier, Israel’s pressure might not have been as effective.”
