TEHRAN - A senior Iranian official says the ongoing tensions between Moscow and Ankara will not serve the interests of regional countries, urging all-out efforts to help end the row.

Both Turkey and Russia “are our neighbors and we do not want to see any tension between [our] neighboring countries, with whom we have friendly relations,” Ali-Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said in Tehran on Saturday.

Velayati, who was speaking to reporters following a meeting with senior Turkish Shia cleric, Sheikh Salahuddin Ozgunduz, added that the tensions between Russia and Turkey will serve the interests of neither of the two countries nor those of other regional states.

Tensions between Ankara and Moscow have been escalating since Turkey’s downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border. On November 24, Turkey shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M bomber with two pilots aboard, claiming the fighter jet had violated the Turkish airspace. One of the pilots lost his life following the attack while the other was rescued in a Syrian army operation.(PressTV)