Erdoğan, Raisi, Putin to meet for Syria summit

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will meet in Tehran on July 19 for a Syria summit, the Kremlin announced.

“The president’s visit to Tehran is being planned for July 19,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 12 adding that the trio would meet for Syrian peace talks.

The Kremlin said Putin will also hold separate talks with Erdoğan in Tehran, without providing more details. The Turkish leader has been offering to meet Putin for months, as Ankara tries to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.

In March, Erdoğan helped mediate talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul. Peskov said there was no discussion about a new round of such negotiations.

Erdoğan had a phone conversation with Putin on July 11 and the two leaders discussed the Ukrainian crisis, efforts to open up a safe corridor for Ukrainian grain exports, along with the issue of extending the mandate of a U.N. mechanism for humanitarian aid to Syria, the Turkish presidency said.

Russia, Türkiye and Iran have, in recent years, been holding talks on Syria as part of the so-called “Astana peace process” to end more than 11 years of conflict in the Middle Eastern country.

The presidents of Türkiye, Russia and Iran convened several times to discuss developments in Syria and efforts to find a political solution to the turmoil in the war-torn country in parallel with the Astana talks.

Iranian foreign minister visited Ankara

Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Emir Abdullahiyan paid a visit to Türkiye on June 27 where he had talks with President Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. The Iranian top diplomat’s visit to Türkiye came soon after Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid paid a visit to Ankara.

Iran’s top diplomat has said Tehran understands Türkiye’s security concerns stemming from northern Syria amid Ankara’s vows over a new military incursion against the presence of the terrorist organizations. Iran, a staunch ally of the Assad regime, has always objected to military operations by Türkiye and, few days after his visit to Ankara, the Iranian foreign minister stated that a Turkish military action in Syria would destabilize the region.

Putin’s visit comes after Biden’s trip to Israel

Putin’s visit to Iran will follow U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia this week, where Iran’s nuclear program and malign activities in the region will be a key subject of discussion.

The White House said Monday that it believes Russia is turning to Iran to provide it with “hundreds’’ of drones, including those capable of carrying weapons, for use in Ukraine.

The U.S. decision to publicly reveal that the two countries’ chief regional rival was helping to rearm Russia comes as both Israel and Saudi Arabia have resisted joining global efforts to punish Russia for its action in Ukraine due to their domestic interests.

In Tehran, Mohammadrez Pourebrahimi, the head of the Iranian Parliament’s economic committee, told state-run news agency IRNA that Putin’s trip would seek to improve economic relations between the two sanctions-hit nations.