Britannia Radio

Determined to prop up Assad, Iranian leaders turn on Turkey with rash criticism and dangerous insults. 

Mohsen Rezaei, head of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, claimed that the Americans were pushing Turkey and Saudi Arabia into conflict with Iran to achieve their own national objectives in the region. He was critical of Turkey's Syria policy which he described as Neo-Ottomanism. Mohsen Rezaie was Chief Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps between 1981 and 1997. He is currently on the wanted list of Interpol. 

Another member of the same Council, a man called Habibollah Askerevladi, went even further. He threatened that "the harm done to Syria by the Turkish state and reactionary Arab leaders would not go unpunished." Apparently he called on Turkey to pay reparations. Maybe he meant to say compensate the damage. It isn't very clear. He should be more careful with his language. 

A day later, an Iranian law-maker who was apparently speaking on behalf of Iran's parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, accused Turkey of causing the deaths of innocents in Syria. In a reference to yesterday's terrorist attack that claimed nine lives, he advised Turkey to keep out of Syria and focus on its difficulties at home. This man, Hossein Naqavi, had also claimed that the downing of the Turkish recconnaisance plane by Syria was a ruse to justify Nato intervention against Assad. 

All this comes on top of some silly nonsense from the Iranian chief of staff. I don't remember what it was that he said, only that the Iranian made no sense at all. 

http://dunya.milliyet.com.tr/-turkiye-nin-suriye-ye-verdigi-zarar-cezasiz-kalmayacak-/dunya/dunyadetay/21.08.2012/1584160/default.htm
http://dunya.milliyet.com.tr/iran-dan-turkiye-deki-saldiriya-farkli-tepki/dunya/dunyadetay/22.08.2012/1584519/default.htm

Backround information: Turkey hasn't fought any wars with Iran since the campaign of 1623-1639 which was the closing phase of a very long conflict which started with an Iranian attempt to reach westwards by manipulating Shia communities in Ottoman territories. Murad IV liberated Baghdad 1639. The two countries then signed the Kasr-e Shirin Treaty to settle their differences. All subsequent disputes between them and us were dealt with in the spirit of the Kasr-e Shirin Treaty which assigns the lands occupied by present day Iraq and Syria to us. It is an open and shut case.