Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said his country’s relations with neighboring countries, particularly Türkiye, are at the desired level.
Speaking at his weekly press conference, Baghaei argued that negative reports in the media aim to create tensions in regional relations, particularly Iran’s ties with its neighbors. He said the United States was pressuring its trading partners to take action against Iran and claimed that the media was being used to amplify the impact of this economic pressure.
Baghaei said Iran and Türkiye have special relations in many areas and share common concerns and views on various issues. He also cited matters related to the Israeli government’s attempts to establish regional dominance, saying that Iran’s diplomatic apparatus is working to prevent the United States from achieving its objectives.
Statement on Mount Qasem
The Iranian spokesman also addressed Mount Qasem in central Iran, which U.S. President Donald Trump had brought into the spotlight. Baghaei said there was no covert activity around the mountain and claimed that reports of nuclear work being carried out in the area were part of psychological warfare conducted by the United States.
In a statement on the 5th, Trump said any activity at Mount Qasem could lead to an attack on the area very soon and suggested that Iran might be conducting work there connected to its nuclear facilities.
Postponement of the Hormuz meeting
Baghaei also addressed Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi’s announcement that a planned regional meeting on the Strait of Hormuz had been postponed. Baghaei claimed that Saudi Arabia had requested the postponement of the meeting in Muscat, but Riyadh did not respond to the statement that day.
On Sunday, Busaidi announced that a meeting planned for September 14 between Iran and the Gulf states on the Strait of Hormuz had been postponed. The meeting, which was to be held in Oman at the foreign-minister level, was expected to announce the agreement reached in talks between Tehran and Muscat.
Hormuz tensions and conflict claims
Following disputes over navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, negotiations between the United States and Iran reached an impasse, while Washington recently carried out military strikes on several locations in Iran. Tehran responded with attacks on facilities and military vehicles in some Arab countries that it identified as belonging to the United States. Some of those attacks caused civilian deaths and damaged civilian facilities.
The countries targeted condemned the attacks and called for them to stop. Iran also announced on February 28 that the United States and Israel had launched a war against Iran and that more than 3,000 people had been killed in the fighting. Tehran said that U.S. and Israeli citizens had also been killed in its attacks.
