Turkey to host Syria summit with Russia, Iran on April 4
AFP
ANKARA: The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran will meet for a three-way summit on Syria in Istanbul on April 4, the Turkish foreign ministry said yesterday, reports AFP. The meeting will be hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and will be the second such tripartite summit following one in November in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The summit will be attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as the three leaders seek to salvage their efforts to end the conflict.
As part of peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana sponsored by Ankara, Moscow and Tehran, the three countries foreign ministers will meet on Friday and will discuss preparations for next months summit, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The three countries have worked together despite being on different sides. While Iran and Russia have provided military support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey has repeatedly called for his ousting and supported Syrian rebels.
Ankara on January 20 launched an air and ground offensive against the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia in its enclave of Afrin in northern Syria.
