Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian is on a visit to Türkiye on Tuesday for talks on bilateral as well as regional issues.
Amirabdollahian and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu are expected to address current regional and international matters as well as bilateral issues, said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement.
Speaking to reporters before the departure to Türkiye, Amirabdollahian said the preliminary arrangements for the upcoming visit of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi to Türkiye would also be made during the visit.
He said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has officially invited Raisi to visit Ankara, which will be the Iranian president's maiden visit to the country since taking office two years ago.
The two leaders last met on the sidelines of the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan in September 2022, where they reviewed agreements reached during Erdoğan's visit to Tehran in July 2022.
Amirabdollahian’s visit to Ankara comes after he visited Damascus last week and met with his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mekdad.
Since Syria's uprising turned into a civil conflict in 2011, Tehran has sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters to help Bashar Assad stay in power amid fighting that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and displaced millions.
Iran has also been a critical economic lifeline for Syria, delivering fuel and credit lines worth billions of dollars to help Damascus offset crippling Western-led sanctions, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge, and rampant power cuts.
After meeting with Amirabdollahian, Mekdad said on Saturday "a meeting between Assad and the Turkish leadership depends on solving matters of dispute," without providing more details or mentioning Erdoğan by name.
Amirabdollahian, who also met Assad on Saturday, said that Iran was "happy with the dialogue taking place between Syria and Türkiye."
The Turkish and Syrian defense ministers held landmark talks in Moscow last month to discuss border security and other issues. Last week, Erdoğan said he may meet regime leader Bashar Assad after a trilateral foreign ministerial meeting.
In November, Erdoğan said a meeting with Assad was a possibility after cutting diplomatic ties with Damascus throughout the 11-year conflict.
In mid-December, he hinted he could meet Assad after the meeting of both countries’ defense and foreign ministers. “We want to take a step as Syria, Türkiye and Russia,” he had said.
NATO member Türkiye has played a major part in the conflict, backing Assad's opponents and sending troops into the north. Moscow is Assad's main ally and Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged reconciliation with Ankara.
The conflict in Syria, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions and drawn in regional and world powers, has ground on into a second decade, although fighting has mellowed.
Any normalization between Ankara and Damascus would reshape the decade-long Syrian war. Turkish backing has been vital to sustaining moderate Syrian opposition in their last significant territorial foothold in the northwest after Assad defeated the opposition across the rest of the country, aided by Russia and Iran.
