Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul flew to Tehran on Saturday, describing his role as that of a facilitator seeking to bring all sides back to the negotiating table over Iran's nuclear program.
Iran was at that point weighing a proposal put forward by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, which offered incentives and multilateral talks in exchange for a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment activities.
Gul called the package, presented to Tehran on 6 June, a sound diplomatic opening. He declined to specify what he planned to say to Iranian officials during the one-day visit.
His schedule included meetings with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, former president Ali Akbar Hachemi Rafsanjani, and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
Türkiye has been urging Iran, its eastern neighbor, to be more open about its nuclear activities. Anxious to avoid further regional instability following the Iraq war, Ankara has consistently pushed for a peaceful resolution to the standoff.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in June 2006, in its own words.