Turkey urges halt to Gulf attacks, warns of impact on peace efforts

Fidan told journalists that Iran's effort to raise costs for Gulf countries in hopes of pushing the United States to end the war is unlikely to succeed. He acknowledged that Turkey's efforts to prevent the war had failed, despite the Turkish government putting forward “creative solutions” to the disagreement over Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programmes. "In fact, we succeeded in delaying the outbreak of the war," he said.

Since the weekend, Iranian military officials have carried out attacks on several Gulf countries, damaging luxury hotels in Dubai, striking energy facilities in Saudi Arabia and prompting Qatar to temporarily halt its LNG exports. Iranian experts close to Tehran say the aim was to “regionalise” the conflict and demonstrate to the US and the international community that the repercussions would extend beyond Iran and affect the broader region.

Fidan said that even meeting the minimum condition for stopping the war – the destruction or neutralisation of Iran’s core military capabilities – would require time and a series of military operations, as Iran is a vast country with missile assets dispersed across many locations. For now, Fidan said, Ankara does not see a level of unrest within Iranian society that would be sufficient to bring about regime change.