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TEHRAN, Oct. 4-- Iran and Turkey have now chosen to converge in the face of common challenges they experience in the region, an Iranian political expert said on Wednesday. Fluctuations in political ties pertaining to certain regional issues, particularly those of the Syrian conflicts, over the past five years, seem to have given way to closer and "brotherly" ties of Tehran and Ankara under the pretext of new developments in their brothers with Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran seeking to mend ties in line with the attempts began last month when the Chief of Staff of Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri made a visit to Ankara and responded by his counterpart on Monday. Jafar Haqpanah, the political expert of the regional issues, responds cautiously to Iran and Turkey's closer relations at this juncture, saying that dissimilar interests are behind this alliance. WHY CONVERGENCE AT THIS JUNCTURE? In essence, Iran and Turkey's opposition to the Kurds' independence referendum in Iraq is different, Jafar Haqpanah told IRAN daily on Wednesday. "While Iran has fears of a foothold for Israel near its borders, Turkey is worried about the restive situation of the Kurd populated areas within its territory," Haqpanah said. The Iranian expert suggested that this tendency to connect at this particular instance is subject to change under uNPRedictable conditions in the region. | 
