Turkish, Iranian presidents meet in Ankara

By Ilkay Guder

ANKARA (AA) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday met in the Turkish capital Ankara.

The meeting, which is closed to the media, started at 10.55 p.m. local time (0755GMT) at the Presidential Complex.

After the meeting, Erdogan will host the trilateral Turkey-Russia-Iran summit on Syria.

After the summit, Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin will join Erdogan at a banquet, followed by a joint news conference with the three leaders.

On March 7, Erdogan and Rouhani discussed recent developments in Syria and agreed to accelerate efforts to realize a cease-fire in order to end the tragedy in Eastern Ghouta and deliver humanitarian aid to civilians.

Last December, the two leaders met in Istanbul during an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

On Nov. 22, Putin hosted Erdogan and Rouhani at a trilateral summit on Syria in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to discuss progress made in the Astana peace talks as well as changes in de-escalation zones across Syria.