TEHRAN, September 16. /TASS/. Tehran’s relations with Moscow and Ankara have reached their highest level ever, a spokesman for Iran’s government Ali Rabiei said on Monday.
“Our relations with Russia and Turkey are at the highest level of their entire history,” Rabiei was quoted by the IRIB radio and television corporation as saying. Tehran’s key strategy on the international arena is to establish dialogue with its neighbors in the region, he highlighted.
On September 16, Ankara is holding a trilateral summit on Syria. The presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran, Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani, are scheduled to gather for talks. Besides, Putin and Rouhani will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the event.
The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey gathered for their first summit on Syria in Russia’s seaside resort city of Sochi in November 2017. The heads of state agreed that Syria’s de-escalation zones must not undermine Damascus’ territorial integrity or infringe upon its sovereignty. They also called on the Syrian government and opposition forces to take part in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress. The idea of such congress was put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Valdai forum in October 2017.
The three leaders had three more meetings on the Syrian settlement, in Ankara in April 2018, in Tehran in September 2018, and in Sochi in February 2019.