Turkish PM criticizes pressure on Iran

The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has exposed divisions in Nato by accusing the west of treating Iran unfairly over its nuclear program and describing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, its vehemently anti-western president, as a friend. In a Guardian interview, Erdogan down-played western fears that Iran wants to build an atomic bomb as "gossip" and said a military strike against Iranian nuclear installations would be "crazy". He also strongly implied that those countries which were pressuring Iran to clarify its goals were guilty of hypocrisy because they all had nuclear weapons themselves. "There is a style of approach which is not very fair because those [who accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons] have very strong nuclear infrastructures and they don't deny that," Erdogan said. "The permanent members of the UN security council all have nuclear arsenals and then there are countries which are not members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which also have nuclear weapons. So although Iran doesn't have a weapon, those who say Iran shouldn't have them are those countries which do."