Turkey’s Erdoğan arrives in Tehran for trilateral summit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Iran's capital Tehran on Friday for a summit with his Iranian and Russian counterparts to discuss the humanitarian situation in Syria.

The Syrian regime has recently announced plans to launch a major military offensive in Idlib, which is controlled by various armed opposition groups. Idlib will be the main item of the summit’s agenda.

Turkey, which backs the opposition against Assad, has said an offensive on Idlib would be disastrous. Ankara is sheltering 3.5 million Syrian refugees.

The first tripartite summit was held in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 22 to discuss progress made in the Astana peace talks and changes in de-escalation zones across Syria.

The second trilateral meeting was hosted by Erdoğan in April in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Erdoğan is accompanied by Turkish National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak and Presidency Communications Director Fahrettin Altun.

The president will have a bilateral meeting with Rouhani. Erdoğan is also expected to have a separate meeting with Putin.

Following the summit, the leaders will hold a joint news conference.