Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today proposed to his Iranian counterpart, Massoud Pezzekian, to play the role of “mediator” between Tehran and Washington as tensions between the US and Iran escalate with threats of US military intervention and an immediate Iranian response.

“During their telephone communication, President Erdogan stressed that Türkiye is ready to play a mediating role between Iran and the US to de-escalate tensions and resolve problems,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

For his part, Pezheskian assessed that Washington should stop threats of military intervention in Iran in order to give diplomacy a chance, the Iranian presidency noted.

“The success of any diplomatic initiative depends on the goodwill of the parties concerned and refraining from hostile and threatening moves and actions in the region,” Pezheskian noted during his talks with Erdogan.

According to the Turkish press, the Turkish president is also pushing for the organization of a trilateral US-Iran-Türkiye summit.

Iranian Foreign Minister in Istanbul

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Istanbul this morning and will meet with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

Turkey, a NATO member state, is keen to avoid at all costs a military escalation in its region, which risks triggering a new wave of migration and creating a new conflict in the region after Syria.

Meanwhile, Türkiye maintains close trade relations with Iran and banned any mobilization of support for Iranian protesters earlier this year.

As a precautionary measure, Ankara is preparing “to strengthen security on its border” with Iran, a senior Turkish official told AFP.

Turkey has already built a 380-kilometer wall along the border, “but this is not enough,” he added.

The wall, reinforced with barbed wire and trenches where the Turkish army patrols 24 hours a day, was built to curb the crossings of migrants from Iran and Afghanistan and drug trafficking.

At the height of the protests in Iran, there was no noticeable increase in migrant flows, but any US strikes could change the picture.