President Erdoğan set to visit Saudi Arabia

ANKARA

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (R) meets with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud (L) before the upcoming G20 Turkey Leaders Summit on November 14, 2015 in Antalya, Turkey. AFP Photo

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to visit Saudi Arabia on Dec. 29-30 and meet King Salman bin Abdülaziz al-Saud, a written statement from the presidential office has said. 

Erdoğan’s official visit comes amid intense diplomatic attempts to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. Turkey recently announced its participation in an anti-terrorist military alliance that consists solely of Sunni states to fight terrorism amid a continuing war on jihadists in the Middle East and elsewhere.

The Saudi-led alliance does not include the kingdom’s Shiite regional rival Iran, or Syria and Iraq.

States from the Middle East, Africa and Asia states will participate in the coalition.  

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition groups are preparing for peace talks in Geneva.  

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syrian peace process in a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives.

The U.N. plans to convene peace talks in Geneva toward the end of January 2016.