Russian, Iranian and Turkish FMs to meet in Astana ahead of Istanbul summit

MOSCOW

The Russian, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers will meet in Kazakhstan in two weeks to prepare the ground for an upcoming summit in Istanbul on Syria, Russia’s TASS news agency cited Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying on Feb. 19.

The three countries have been working together to push the troubled Syrian peace process forward.

On Feb. 8, the three-way summit was discussed during a phone conversation between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which they also discussed Turkey’s “Operation Olive Branch” into Afrin.

Turkish sources had said the two leaders agreed to hold a top-level meeting including Iranian President Hasan Rouhani in Istanbul following their summit in Sochi in late November 2017. The date for the upcoming Istanbul summit has not been decided.