Tehran, Ankara Contributing to Regional Peace: Turkish PM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said relations between Tehran and Ankara have reached their highest level, stressing that the two countries have taken important steps to help restore peace and security to the region.
Iran and Turkey, despite their differences over certain regional issues, are cooperating with each other to bring back peace to the region, Syria in particular, Yildirim told Turkish newspaper Hurriyet on Monday.
“We are taking many steps together for peace,” he said.
Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran, Russia and Turkey have started the process of finding a political solution to the Syria crisis.
There is no military solution to the Syria conflict and the country’s crisis can only be solved through political approaches, Zarif said in Moscow on December 20.
The Iranian foreign minister was speaking at a meeting with his Russian and Turkish counterparts Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, respectively, and members of the three countries’ delegations, which had gathered in the Russian capital to discuss the latest developments in Syria, particularly those concerning the newly liberated strategic city of Aleppo.
He expressed hope that a ceasefire agreement could be reached in Syria, saying that now is a good time for the resumption of negotiations to find a political solution to the crisis in the country.
At the end of their trilateral meeting, the foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey issued a joint statement on agreed steps to revitalize the political process to end the Syria crisis.