Mideast should be a WMD-free zone: Erdogan

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the entire Middle East region should be made a zone free of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

"It is unfair to ignore Israel's nuclear arsenal and instead focus on Iran's nuclear activities," Erdogan told the satellite television network Aljazeera in Pakistan.

Israel is thought to have produced sufficient fissile material to build 200 warheads by the mid-1990s. In 1986, descriptions and photographs of Israeli nuclear warheads produced at a purported underground bomb factory at the Dimona nuclear reactor were published in The Sunday Times of London.

Iran says its nuclear program is totally peaceful and has called for the eradication of all weapons of mass destruction.

Erdogan stated that he is opposed to the discontinuation of negotiations between Iran and the West.

"Iran should continue its talks with the West because only dialogue can bear results," he added.

Pointing to the sanctions imposed on Iran by the West, he stated that Turkey is against this policy.

"I want to ask those countries which themselves have nuclear weapons, but ask Iran not to go after such weapons: How is it possible to have something and ask others to avoid the same?"

"The International Atomic Energy Agency should extend the scope of its inspections to the nuclear sites to non-member countries," Erdogan told Aljazeera.

Erdogan is expected to arrive in Tehran today after wrapping up his visit to Pakistan.