Turkish, Russian, Iranian presidents meet in Tehran

By Ilkay Guder

TEHRAN

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani met Friday ahead of a summit on Syria in the capital Tehran.

The bilateral meeting came before the start of the trilateral summit between leaders of Turkey, Russia, and Iran.

The closed-door meeting between Erdogan and Rouhani at the Sadabad Palace lasted around 45 minutes.

Erdogan was accompanied by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, and Hakan Fidan, chief of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).

Prior to the meeting, Erdogan said: "Today is a really important and meaningful day... We will hold an important meeting in Tehran following Sochi and Turkey."

Rouhani said: "This meeting is also an opportunity to discuss and confer issues between the two countries."

At the third tripartite summit on Syria, Erdogan, Rouhani, and Russia's Vladimir Putin discussed joint efforts as part of the Astana process and a lasting political solution to the Syrian conflict.

Erdogan also met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the sidelines of the the tripartite summit. The meeting was closed to the media.

Following the meeting, Khamenei’s press office published a statement reaffirming friendly relations between the two countries.

“Iran and Turkey share a common cause for the Islamic world. For this reason, political and economic cooperation should be enhanced between Iran and Turkey,” the statement said.

The first tripartite summit was held in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 22 to discuss progress made in the Astana peace talks and changes in de-escalation zones across Syria.

The second trilateral meeting was hosted by Erdogan in April in the Turkish capital Ankara.