Rouhani arrives in Ankara to attend trilateral meeting on Syria

Upon arrival in Ankara, he was welcomed by Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli and ambassadors of the two countries.

Trilateral summit of Iran, Russia and Turkey on the Syrian situation is scheduled to be held at the level of senior experts, foreign ministers and heads of states in the Turkish capital for two days.

The meeting is the second round of trio’s talks in continuation of Astana talks and Sochi summit which has been planned to help promote cooperation to find a solution to the civil war in Syria.

The participants will reportedly uphold Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and adopt new measures to sustain ceasefire as well as explore avenues for preventing violation of ceasefire in de-escalation zones.

Rouhani who is in Turkey at the official invitation of his Turkish counterpart will take part in the summit of the three presidents on Wednesday.

The president is also scheduled to hold separate discussions with Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Russian and Turkish counterparts respectively, on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting.

During the meetings, they are to explore regional and international cooperation as well as avenues for promoting bilateral relations.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Ankara at the head of a separate delegation today to attend a working breakfast with Sergei Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Russian and Turkish counterparts respectively, on Wednesday.

They will discuss the topics to be discussed by the three presidents and draw out draft for the summit.

The first round of presidential talks was convened in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in November 2017.

Moscow, Tehran and Ankara are guarantors of the Syria peace process, an initiative brokered in the Kazakh capital of Astana to find a peaceful ssolution to the Syria war.
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