Erdoğan, Raisi, Putin to meet for Syria summit

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...