Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi warned that the deployment of NATO’s advanced surface-to-air Patriot missiles along the Turkish border with Syria would be harmful to TurkeY

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi warned that the deployment of NATO’s advanced surface-to-air Patriot missiles along the Turkish border with Syria would be harmful to Turkey.

It “will play no role in [maintaining] Turkey’s security and this will be detrimental to Turkey,” Vahidi said on Saturday. The presence of Western foreign forces in Muslim countries has always caused problems and conflict among them, he added.

The Iranian minister emphasized that Western countries have always sought to guarantee their own interests and said “we are against the presence of Western countries in regional interactions.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Patriot missiles will be deployed near the southeastern cities of Adana, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

All the six Patriot batteries, which will be under NATO command and control, are scheduled to be operational near the Turkish-Syria border by the end of January 2013.