Erdogan criticizes West over hypocrisy on Iran

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says countries with huge nuclear arsenals have no right to lecture Iran about the threat of atomic weapons.

"Those who criticize Iran's nuclear program continue to possess the same weapons," Erdogan said in a televised address on Saturday.

Erdogan was referring to nuclear-armed states that accuse Tehran of attempting to produce nuclear weapons but at the same time refuse to eradicate their own nuclear arsenals.

"I think that those who take this stance, who want these arrogant sanctions, need to first give these (weapons) up. We shared this opinion with our Iranian friends, our brothers," he noted.

The Turkish premier made the remarks following his two-day trip to Iran earlier this week.

Iran says it enriches uranium for civilian applications and that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has a right to the technology already in the hands of many others.

Erdogan has vocally supported Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, saying world policymakers have been treating Tehran "unfairly" over its enrichment program.

"Iran does not accept it is building a weapon. They are working on nuclear power for the purposes of energy only," Erdogan said in a recent interview with The Guardian.