Erdoğan Hosts Putin, Rouhani for Syria Talks

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The leaders of Turkey, Russia and Iran have come together for the fifth trilateral summit on Syria in "Astana format", in which they discussed regional and global developments with a special focus on the Syrian crisis.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan first received his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani at the presidential complex and held a closed-door meeting that lasted almost two hours.

Erdoğan later in the day welcomed Putin at the Çankaya Palace, saying, "Nice to meet you." The presidents then held a closed-door meeting that lasted around one-and-a-half-hour.

Later in the day, the three presidents gathered for the fifth summit on Syria in the Astana format.

The summit aims at assessing the latest developments in Syria, northwestern Idlib province in particular, ensuring the necessary conditions for the voluntary return of refugees, achieving a lasting truce and political solution to the Syrian turmoil.

The Astana peace process was launched in January 2017 upon the initiatives of Turkey, Russia, and Iran. A total of 13 rounds have been conducted in Astana, Kazakhstan so far.

Turkey and Russia last September agreed on to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

Idlib is currently inhabited by about 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of people displaced in recent years. (PT/VK)