Dialogue with Iran, Turkey at time being futile: Abul Gheit

CAIRO, June 17 (MENA) - Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit stressed on Monday that the crisis with Iran and Turkey has aggravated over the past period to the point that holding dialogue with them at the time being have become futile.

Holding dialogue just for dialogue without having any terms of reference is only window dressing that would not help address core issues, Abul Gheit said at the opening of a seminar on building a unified strategy to deal with neighbors.

The seminar is organized by the Arab Parliament.

He said Iran and Turkey's expansion policies are behind their current crisis with Arab countries.

He said Iran's interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries has become a main topic on the agenda of the Arab League Council since 2015. "We see today the threats Iran and its wings are posing to Arab national security and world security as regards safety of global navigation and commercial routes," he added.

From Abul Gheit's point of view, the core of the problem with these two neighboring countries is that both of them have a political project that it seeks to carry out outside its boundaries.

Iran gives itself the right to meddle with the crises of some Arab countries and sometimes seeks to flare up crises in the Arab region to carry out its political project in the Arab region that threatens to drive the region into an ethnic conflict, he said.

As for Turkey, Abul Gheit said Turkey wants to carry out another serious political project as it seeks to promote political Islam, giving itself the right to invade lands of neighboring countries on the pretext of protecting its own national security without any consideration to other countries' sovereignty.

Both projects see ongoing crises in the region as a chance for more expansion, a conception that is limited to short-term gains and does not care about long-term relations based on mutual confidence, he added.