Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) greeting Turkish Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu in 2011.

The intelligence cooperation between Turkey and Iran is in a “very, very good state,” Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Alireza Bigdeli told Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News Monday.

Bigdeli openly mocked Western powers, and Israel, saying they were bothered by the fact that Iran and Turkey’s intelligence cooperation was at a level that reflects the two countries being “strong neighbors and brothers,” Hurriyet reported.

“Why do they not like it when Turkish and Iranian intelligence agencies cooperate? They expect Turkey to have good cooperation with MOSSAD or CIA. There is that side to it. Turkish and Iranian agencies always have cooperation, and they should have so, and they will have so. It is normal between neighbors to have that, but they treat it with doubt,” Bigdeli said.

Bigdeli cited recent contacts between high-level officials in the countries, including a meeting between the presidents of Iran and Turkey while they were both in New York for the United Nations General Assembly in September.

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“All this can show nothing but warmth. Why do newspapers write about the closeness of intelligence agencies between two countries? Well, that’s why,” Bigdeli said.

Bigdeli said that to believe differences over Syria would cause a rift would be misguided, saying the relationship between the two countries contained many levels and dimensions.

“Unlike what is assumed by others, the relations between the two countries are so deep that an issue like Syria cannot have that great of an impact. If it had been two other countries that experienced the last few months, they could have gone through serious crises. But the warmth between us has never gone away,” Bigdeli said.