Iran's indiscriminate retaliatory attacks on targets across the Gulf states are the "wrong strategy," Turkey's top diplomat said in a televised interview on Tuesday."Iran's bombing of Arab countries without making any distinction -- Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan - all of them - is, in my opinion, an incredibly wrong strategy," Hakan Fidan told state-run TRT HABER television.
"It significantly increases the risk in the region. But from Iran's own perspective as well, it is an extremely mistaken strategy," he added.
Iran has broadened its targets in its war with the United States and Israel to include infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which are American allies.
Oil infrastructure came under Iranian attack in Gulf countries on Tuesday, with Qatar's state energy firm halting some production of key materials after strikes on two facilities.
Fidan said most of the Gulf countries "actually worked very hard to prevent the war".
"These countries had not harmed Iran, they had not opened their airspace to the attacking side, they had not allowed aircraft to take off from their territory," he said.
Iran's response demonstrates how serious its threat perception has become, according to Fidan.
"The underlying strategy seems to be: 'If I am going to sink, I will take the region down with me'".
-'Risks'-
While Iran has retaliated by aiming drones and missiles at Israel, Iraq, Jordan and the Gulf states in the hope of striking US bases and assets, Turkey has so far been spared Tehran's wrath.
A majority Sunni-Muslim nation which is a member of NATO, Turkey shares a 500-kilometre (315-mile) border with Iran.
On Tuesday, Fidan said that the United States should limit its attacks on Iran to degrading its military capabilities as forcing regime change would cause "risks" for the region.
Attacking military targets and regime change were the two main options for the war, he said.
"Moving toward the second (regime change) means introducing very different scenarios and risks for the region," he declared.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a key regional player, had previously expressed his sadness at the death of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in Saturday's strikes along with much of the Islamic republic's leadership.
"Perhaps the new leadership in Iran could adopt a more flexible stance at this point. I believe that the new leadership could, in fact, represent an opportunity to stop the war," Fidan said.
The minister added that any resolution should avoid excessively humiliating Iran while still addressing the concerns of other parties.
"Otherwise, the prolongation of the war itself will lead to consequences far worse than any concessions that might be made," he said.
