- As Hardliners Hope To Topple Rouhani in Tight Iran Election
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has indicated after talks in Washington that he will never accept a US alliance with Kurdish forces fighting in Syria.
“There is no place for terrorist organisations in the future of our region,” he said at a joint news conference with President Donald Trump.
He was referring to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, following a US decision earlier this month to arm the group.
Despite this, the two leaders pledged to strengthen bilateral relations.
“We’ve had a great relationship and we will make it even better,” President Trump said.
Mr Trump also “reiterated the commitment of the United States to the security of our Nato ally Turkey and the need to work together to confront terrorism in all its forms”, the White House said in a statement issued shortly afterwards.
Turkey views the YPG (the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units) as terrorists and wants to stop them taking more territory in Syria.
“It is absolutely unacceptable to take the YPG-PYD into consideration as partners in the region, and it’s going against a global agreement we reached,” Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday.
Ankara says the YPG is as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a group it has been fighting for decades in south-eastern Turkey.
The US sees the YPG as distinct from the PKK and also as a key partner in the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS).
On 9 May, the Pentagon announced that Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces, including the YPG, would be given weapons to help drive IS militants from their Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
SDF forces, which also comprise Arab militias, are already being supported by elite US forces and air strikes from a US-led coalition.
The SDF is currently battling for control of the city of Tabqa, an IS command centre just 50km (30 miles) from Raqqa.
At Tuesday’s talks in Washington, Mr Erdogan also said he had raised the issue of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
Ankara blames him for the failed coup last July, pressing for his extradition.
Mr Gulen has denied the accusation.
In the meantime, inside a massive mosque Tuesday evening, more than 15,000 conservative Iranians chanted a mocking farewell to Iran’s reformist president.
“Bye bye, Rouhani,” roared the crowd. “At the end of the week, Rouhani is gone.”
Supporters of hardline candidate Ebrahim Raisi have rising hopes he will unseat incumbent President Hassan Rouhani in Friday’s election, now that Raisi’s chief conservative rival, Tehran mayor Mohammad Ghalibaf, has dropped out and thrown his support to Raisi.
At Tuesday’s rally for Raisi, the last before what is expected to be a tight election, the packed crowd erupted when Ghalibaf joined Raisi onstage and the two men clasped hands and held them high. Turnout was so heavy that the overflow could only watch the moment on a huge screen outside.
It’s fair to assume that Raisi will collect most of the votes that were going to go to Ghalibaf, bringing him closer to victory. But other minor candidates are dropping out and throwing their support to Rouhani.
Four years ago, Rouhani managed to unite disparate factions and win his first term as president. A centrist and reformer, he tallied more than 50 percent in the first round in 2013 against five other candidates, meaning no run off was needed. His administration negotiated a 2015 nuclear deal with the U.S. and other world powers that eased sanctions that had thwarted the economy.
But this time, with the economy still stagnant, polls show Rouhani struggling to reach 50 percent.
At rallies and during televised debates over the past few weeks, Rouhani, Raisi, and Ghalibaf, before he dropped out, traded bitter barbs. Both Raisi and Ghalibaf have accused Rouhani of not delivering on the promises he made when his administration signed the nuclear deal with the U.S. and other major powers. The majority of Iranians, they argue, have not felt the economic benefits Rouhani promised, likening the deal to a check that cannot be cashed.
For his part, Rouhani has gone on the offensive as his numbers have slipped, trying to appeal to the large youthful vote, attacking hardliners for not giving people social freedoms, for isolating Iran and putting it on a trajectory towards war.
Rouhani has alleged that the Revolutionary Guard, which supports Raisi, has deliberately tried to undermine the nuclear deal. The Iranian president cited recent testing of ballistic missiles with incendiary anti-Israeli slogans emblazoned on them. Rouhani also has claimed that if the hardliners get back into power the country will have a suffocating security atmosphere.
At a rally Monday, Rouhani told his supporters, “If you vote for me in large numbers I will go and kiss the Supreme Leader’s hands 10 times if necessary in order to free political prisoners.”
Rouhani was saying he would kiss Ayatollah Ali Khamanei’s hands in order to free Mir Hossain Mousavi, the reformist candidate who lost the disputed 2009 election. Allegations that the election was rigged in favor of then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prompted protests that turned violent and led to a crackdown by the hardline government. Ever since, Mousavi has been under house arrest and banned from politics.
BBC with additional report from NBC