Turkey, Russia and Iran to hold summit on Syria next week

Russian President Vladimir Putin will next week host his Turkish and Iranian counterparts Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani for talks on Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

Peskov added, "... We are talking about the countries that are the guarantors of the Syrian peace process, the agenda is Syria."

The leaders will meet at Putin's official residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks on Syria and the region on November 22.

“Recent developments following the Astana peace process and implementation of the de-escalation zones agreement will be on the agenda,” said Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

The meeting – the first such three-way summit between the trio – comes as Ankara, Moscow and Tehran cooperate with increasing intensity on ending the over six-year civil war in Syria.

Turkish President Erdogan also met his Russian counterpart Putin on Monday in Sochi where two presidents had agreed to deepen bilateral ties and the Syrian issue.

President Erdogan had said that he was “pleased” that relations between Ankara and Moscow had reached a "very advanced level," during the news conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Turkey, Russia and Iran are sponsoring peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana and also implementing a plan for de-escalation zones in key flashpoint areas of Syria.

The three countries, the guarantors of the deal, brokered a cease-fire in Syria in December 2016, which led to the Astana talks, and are being held in parallel to UN-backed discussions in Geneva to find a political solution to the conflict.

“Three leaders will also discuss humanitarian situation in the country and evaluate possible contribution they can make to Geneva talks,” Kalin added.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria and 11 million displaced since the conflict began in March 2011 with protests against the Assad regime.