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Iran opposes NATO expansion, says foreign minister

Finland and Sweden in May 2022 applied for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, but Turkey blocked the accession process, demanding that they declare Kurdish organizations as terrorists, as well as extradite persons accused of terrorism or participation in an attempted coup in 2016

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian Majid Asgaripour/WANA via REUTERS

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian

© Majid Asgaripour/WANA via REUTERS

TEHRAN, February 27. /TASS/. Iran opposes the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said during talks with his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto in Geneva.

That’s according to a statement that the Iranian Foreign Ministry published on its website on Monday.

Abdollahian said in the statement that Tehran is "categorically against the expansion of NATO," extending the conflict in Ukraine, and threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries.

Finland and Sweden in May 2022 applied for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, but Turkey blocked the accession process, demanding that they declare Kurdish organizations as terrorists, as well as extradite persons accused of terrorism or participation in an attempted coup in 2016. At the end of January, a major scandal broke out between Turkey and Sweden over the burning of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. In addition, demonstrators near the Stockholm City Hall hung upside down a puppet resembling Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a rally organized by the Kurdistan Democratic Community Center in support of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in mid-January. The president said that Sweden should not expect Ankara to support its application to join NATO following this and other anti-Turkish actions in Stockholm.

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