Turkish PM to pay official visit to Saudi Arabia later this week

ANKARA

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Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is scheduled to pay a three-day official visit to Saudi Arabia later this week, the prime ministry office announced on Jan. 25, amid ambiguity surrounding the fate of talks aimed at ending Syrian’s five-year war.

During his visit that will kick off on Jan. 29, Davutoğlu will hold talks both in the capital, Riyadh, and Jeddah, anonymous sources from the prime minister’s office told the state-run Anadolu Agency. Davutoğlu will discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and regional issues, the same sources told the agency without elaborating. While in Jeddah, the prime minister will visit the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and he is expected to proceed to Mecca as well, the sources said.

Representatives of the Syrian government and opposition had been set to meet in Geneva on Jan. 25 as part of a U.N.-endorsed 18-month peace plan. But a dispute over whether armed groups should be able to sit at the table to represent the opposition appears poised to delay the talks.

Speaking in Laos on Jan. 25, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he hoped for “clarity” within 48 hours on the talks, noting that he had held a flurry of conversations with key parties including his French, Turkish, Russian and Saudi counterparts to try to convene the talks.