Türkiye's foreign minister warned on Saturday against efforts to cause a civil war inside Iran, while cautioning Tehran after Nato intercepted a Türkiye-bound ballistic missile launched from Iran earlier in the week.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said any effort to stir up a civil war inside Iran in a bid to bring about regime change would be an "historic" mistake.

"We are against all scenarios that aim to instigate a civil war in Iran, that target ethnic or religious fault lines," Fidan told journalists in Istanbul.

"This is the most dangerous scenario," he added.

He was speaking after reports that Washington was looking to arm Kurdish guerrillas to infiltrate Iran, with US President Donald Trump expressing support for such an offensive.

Fidan said he had raised the matter with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who had denied any American involvement in such an issue.

Such a move would raise hackles in Türkiye, which has fought a decades-long bloody conflict with the Kurdish militant PKK, which it is now seeking to end.

Fidan also issued a warning to Tehran just days after Nato intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Iran heading towards Türkiye on Wednesday.

Türkiye's defence ministry said at the time a missile "fired from Iran and detected heading towards Türkiye... was intercepted" by Nato air and missile defence systems in the eastern Mediterranean.

"We spoke with our Iranian friends. We said that if this is a missile that veered off path, that's a different matter, but if there's going to be more of this, it may be a one-off, but if there's going to be more of this, and our advice to you is to be very careful. Nobody in Iran should embark on such an adventure," he added. (AFP)


Edited by Tony Sabine