Iran’s FM Heads to Turkey for Tripartite Meeting
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif left Tehran for the southwestern Turkish city of Antalya to take part in a trilateral meeting of Iran, Russia and Turkey on the situation in Syria.
Zarif left the capital Tehran for Antalya at the head of a ranking political delegation on Saturday night.
Foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Russia are going to convene on Sunday to discuss the results of expert-level talk on the settlement of Syria crisis and prepare the ground for an upcoming summit of presidents in Sochi.
The three ministers would reportedly discuss the latest developments in Syria and the outcome of several rounds of expert-level sessions, and finalize the agenda of a presidential meeting in the Russian city of Sochi.
In the summit on November 22, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan are going to push for peace in Syria, which has been gripped by war since March 2011.
Iran, Russia and Turkey have so far held seven rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstan to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.
Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January.
According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.