Turkish President Erdoğan to visit Iran on Sept. 7 for Syria summit

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will travel to Iran on Sept. 7, the presidency announced on Aug. 27. Erdoğan will attend the third summit within the Astana process amid raising concerns for a possible regime attack at the rebel-hold Idlib province of Syria.

Turkey, Russia and Iran are the three countries that are the guarantors of a countrywide cease-fire in Syria and the leaders of the guarantors will meet in Iran. They have been mediating a peace process since January 2016 among Syria’s warring sides in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has held two meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the last two weeks. The minister also met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Aug. 24. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and National Intelligence Organization Director Hakan Fidan also held meetings in Moscow, just a week after their first trip to the Russian capital.

Turkey’s demarche comes over an impending Syrian military operation into Idlib where Ankara warns against a full scale military operation that will risk the lives of nearly three million civilians.

The Syrian army, backed by Russia, aims to eliminate jihadist terrorists, which have been controlling the province since early 2017.el to Tehran on Sept. 7, presidency announced on Aug. 27.