Washington - Turkey is seeking a close bond with Iran, a tradi­tional rival of Ankara in the Middle East, to in­crease pressure on the Iraqi Kurds after their independ­ence referendum in northern Iraq.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in Tehran for talks with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rohani, said Turkey and Iran were united in their opposition to the Kurdish independence drive in Iraq and vowed to intensify economic cooperation with the neighbour to Turkey’s east.

The demonstration of unity came eight months after Erdogan ac­cused Tehran of spreading “Persian nationalism” throughout the Mid­dle East and promised to put a stop to Iranian meddling in the region.

Predominantly Sunni Turkey and Shia power Iran are heirs to empires — the Ottomans and the Persians — thatBaghdad will allow that.”

Still, Erdogan keeps piling pres­sure on the Iraqi Kurds. During his visit to Tehran, the Turkish leader reminded the KRG that it was sur­rounded by powers opposed to a Kurdish state: Turkey in the north, Iran in the east, the central Iraqi government in the south and Syria to the west.

The Turkish-Iranian rapproche­ment comes at a time of increasing friction between Ankara and the West. A Turkish plan to buy a Rus­sian missile defence system stoked concerns in Western capitals that Ankara is turning away from its NATO allies. The United States and Turkey are also at odds over Wash­ington’s support for Syria’s Kurds in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). The arrest of a Turkish staff member of the US consulate in Is­tanbul