July 22, 2016
Foreign Minister Mo-hammad-Javad Zarif boasted Sunday that the Islamic Republic was the first country to take a public stand against the coup plot in Turkey.
That wasn’t true.
The coup was launched Friday afternoon and was essentially defeated by dawn Saturday.
Zarif put out two tweets later on Saturday morning opposing the coup and the Foreign Ministry posted a statement on its website timed off at 12:17 p.m., Saturday, hours after the coup had crumbled.
In Washington, US Secretary of State put out a statement Friday afternoon Washington time, hours before the outcome was clear.
Zarif went before the Majlis in a closed session Sunday and Deputy Akbar Ranjbarzadeh later said Zarif had told the deputies Iran was the first country in the world to take a stand on the plot.
Much of the hardline media in Iran tried to link the United States to the coup. The proof of that link most commonly cited was that the commander of the Turkish air base at Incirlik was arrested as a plotter and the US Air Force has several aircraft that are bombing the Islamic State located on that base.
But the anti-American media in Turkey rarely cited that “evidence.” Instead, they pointed to the fact that a prominent opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lives in Pennsylvania and cited the fact that the Americans allow him to live there as evidence of US involvement in the coup.
Another Majlis deputy, Behruz Nemati said that Zarif told the Majlis Iran even had a role in defeating the coup plot. Nemati reported that Zarif said, “A number of military agents in Turkey took certain steps that were monitored by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which made contact with its Turkish counterpart and the coup was defeated.”
It is not often that countries admit publicly to spying on neighbors.
Around the world, governments either condemned the coup attempt or maintained silence. No country was reported supporting the coup, not even the government of Syria.
Iran’s close alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is harshly opposed by Erdogan, may be why Zarif was so intent on demonstrating Iranian opposition to the coup. Iran was likely to be suspected in Turkey of support for the coup based on backing of Assad.
Qatar gave support early and vocally to Erdogan. Both Qatar and Erdogan are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world, in contrast to most Arab states. Other Arab countries were silent.
Israel supported Erdogan as the democratically elected leader of Turkey.
The United States and most European countries came out in opposition to the coup saying they opposed efforts to topple any democratically elected government. The Obama Administration has been consistent on that theme, for example, opposing the military coup that toppled Egyptian Prime Minister Mohammad Morsi, citing the fact that he was freely elected.