The Foreign Ministry rejected Thursday claims echoed by Iranian officials and media outlets that dams constructed by Turkey lead to drought and sand storms in Iran.
"Claims that dams in Turkey caused sand and dust storms in our region are far from being scientific," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said, according to a statement.
Asserting that sand and dust storms are universally accepted to be largely natural phenomena, Bilgiç said the main cause of the storms affecting Turkey and Iran was desert dust blown in from Africa and the Middle East.
"Land destruction, deforestation, desertification, and drought triggered by climate change also increase these storms," he added.
Every country must do its part and take action for the sustainable use of water and soil resources to prevent sand and dust storms, as well as to mitigate their negative effects, underlined the official.
These problems cannot realistically be solved if Tehran blames Turkey for such issues, he said.
Ankara "sees issues related to water from a purely humanitarian perspective," Bilgiç said, underlining that Turkey believes transboundary waters are an area for cooperation rather than conflict between riparian countries.
Turkey is open to any rational, scientific cooperation with Iran on this issue, he added.
Tehran on Tuesday said Turkey's upstream dam-building on shared waterways, namely the Aras River in the northeast, was "unacceptable," calling on its neighbor to cease its activities.
Iran has faced frequent droughts in recent years, caused in part by climate change but also by dam-building in neighboring countries.
Neither country is party to the 1997 United Nations Watercourses Convention that regulates the use of transnational water resources.
