Turkey's Foreign Minister Warns Of A Regional Sunni-Shiite Cold War

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi (right) greets his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu. Radio Free Europe

Turkey Warns Against Shi'ite-Sunni Cold War -- Yahoo News/Reuters

ANKARA (Reuters) - Middle East powerhouse Turkey on Wednesday warned against a sectarian Cold War in the region and said rising Sunni-Shi'ite tensions would be "suicide" for the whole region.

"Let me openly say that there are some willing to start a regional Cold War," Foreign Minster Ahmet Davutoglu told state-run Anatolian news agency before heading to Shi'ite Iran.

"We are determined to prevent a regional Cold War. Sectarian regional tensions would be suicide for the whole region," Davutoglu said, adding such effects would last for decades.

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Update: Turkey opposes regional cold war: FM -- Xinhuanet

My Comment: This fear of a Muslim Cold-War is in some countries (now) a very hot conflict. One can see this sectarian rifts forming in Iraq, the Syrian civil war is primarily between Alawite Shiites and Sunnis, and the unrest in Bahrain is between the Shiite majority population and the Sunni monarchy.

But while the Turkish Foreign Minister's fears of a Cold War in the Middle East are justified .... for the Iranian government the problems and tensions in the region come from only one source.