Turkey could play an important role in convincing Iran to change its behavior over the nuclear standoff, U.S. Department of State spokesman Sean McCormack told on Tuesday in a daily press briefing.
"Turkey's a neighbor to Iran and they could play an important role in perhaps trying to convince the Iranian regime to change their behavior and really come in line with the mainstream of behavior in the international system with which they are not currently," McCormack said, ahead of Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan's meeting with U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice in Washington.
McCormack said Babacan and Rice would hold talks on Turkish-American relations, the fight against the outlawed PKK, and issues related to Iraq, the Middle East and Iran.
"We'll talk about U.S.-Turkish relations. There's a lot of there's a rich (inaudible) of material there. The relationship is good. It is strong. And I would expect we'll talk about issues of interest to Turkey, Turkey's relationship to Europe, also talk about our common goal of fighting terrorism, fighting the PKK, talk about how that work relates to Iraq as well," he said.
McCormack also said the Turkish government and the Iraqi government have had some good discussions on their common fight against the outlawed PKK, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and most of the international community, including the U.S. and the EU.
"We're interested in a diversity - encouraging a diversity of energy supplies for Europe as well as a diversity of means of transporting those supplies. And that, of course, is of great interest to Turkey which has served as, in part, an energy corridor between the states of Asia and Central Asia and Europe," McCormack added.
Babacan and Rice is scheduled to meet on Thursday in Washington.