Permanent Israeli Embassy to Open Near Iran Border in Turkmenistan
Israel has announced plans to establish a permanent embassy in Turkmenistan, which will be located near the Iranian border. This move is being hailed by Israel as a testament to their growing influence in the Central Asian region, despite warnings from Iran regarding the threats posed by the Israeli regime to neighboring countries.
The Israeli media made the announcement on Friday and said the regime’s foreign minister Eli Cohen is “soon” expected to leave for Turkmenistan – a Central Asian country that shares a long border with Iran – to officially inaugurate the permanent Israeli embassy in the capital, Ashgabat.
The Israeli embassy will open 20 kilometers away from the Turkmen-Iranian border and will be the regime’s closest mission to Iran, according to the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayom.
Claiming that Israel and Turkmenistan have an “important and strategic” relationship, Cohen told the newspaper that the opening of the embassy “sends a message to Tehran that Israel has growing influence in the region.”
Israel opened a temporary embassy in Turkmenistan about a decade ago, and the permanent building will be like the Israeli mission in Azerbaijan, which also shares a border with the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi said in a meeting with his Azeri counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the heads of the Caspian Sea littoral states in Ashgabat last year that the Israeli presence in the region only stokes tensions and the occupying regime undermines security wherever it manages to gain a foothold.
“The presence of the Zionist regime in any environment undermines security there,” Raeisi said, adding that security in the region can be achieved only through the cooperation of regional countries
Iran has time and again expressed concern over growing instability in the region due to the presence of extra-regional forces, Takfiri terrorist groups, and the occupying regime of Israel as the major regional threats that have to be confronted.
