Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visits Iran on Sunday at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
Fidan will meet with his Iranian counterpart to exchange views on regional and international issues, a ministry statement said.
The Turkish FM visited Baghdad and Erbil on 22-24 August to discuss water energy and cooperation matters in combating the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Ahead of the parliamentary and presidential elections in May, Turkish diplomacy focused on boosting ties with its regional surroundings. It made strides in this context and restored the momentum of ties with the Gulf countries and the normalization of ties with Egypt.
Moreover, the Syrian issue is a key topic in the Turkish-Iranian ties.
The visit of Fidan to Tehran on Sunday comes one day before the expected meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi in southern Russia. Talks are expected to focus on bilateral ties, the Russian-Ukrainian war, ways to resume the Black Sea grain initiative, and several regional and international issues.
Russia is leading an Iranian-backed initiative to normalize ties between Ankara and Damascus.
Fidan was in Moscow to prepare for an informal summit between Erdogan and Putin in Sochi.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received Thursday Iranian FM. Assad emphasized in his meeting that "Turkish withdrawal from Syrian territory is inevitable and necessary for the return of normal relations between Damascus and Ankara.”
For his part, the Iranian minister stressed that establishing friendly ties between Syria and Türkiye serves both countries and the region.
During a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, Abdollahian said that during the quartet meeting to normalize ties between Ankara and Damascus on June 20-21 there were proposals on ways to settle security and stability in Syria and Türkiye.
Yet, stalemate prevails over the normalization path between Türkiye and Syria since the last meeting between the deputy foreign ministers of the four countries in Astana, during which a Russian road map was discussed.
No progress has been made until now.
Türkiye seeks tripartite coordination with Iraq and Iran against the PKK that jeopardizes the three states. It launched several drone attacks on the Sulaymaniyah region.
The Iraqi government called on Türkiye to apologize for its attack on Sulaymaniyah airport in April, saying Ankara must cease hostilities on Iraqi soil. But the Turkish defense minister denied back then that Türkiye had anything to do with the attack.
