Turkey Triangulates Iran War, Cyprus, Iraq in One Day

Turkish diplomacy on May 9 was shaped by three separate regional fires it is trying to keep apart. The most pressing was the US-Iran war. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi used a Saturday phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, to register Tehran's deepening scepticism about Washington's intentions. "The recent escalation of tensions by US forces and their multiple ceasefire violations reinforce suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the US side on the path of diplomacy," Araghchi was quoted as saying by Iranian media at 16:34 BST. The exchange came a day after Donald Trump said he was waiting for an Iranian reply to a proposed settlement aimed at permanently ending hostilities; as of Saturday, Tehran had not commented publicly on the offer.

The second was the eastern Mediterranean. Ankara reacted with alarm to the announcement by Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that France will deploy soldiers to the island under a Status of Forces Agreement to be signed in June. Turkish officials warned the move could escalate tensions and described it as part of a deepening defence triangle between Cyprus, Greece and Israel that Ankara reads as encirclement.

The third was Iraq. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Istanbul on Saturday and told him that Turkey opposes any expansion of the US-Iran conflict to other countries in the region. Erdoğan expressed specific concern over attacks on Iraqi territory, including strikes in Erbil, and reaffirmed Turkey's solidarity with the KRG. The meeting served to reassert that Ankara wants the war's footprint contained on its southern border, regardless of how the broader Iran ceasefire negotiations resolve.