ANKARA: Turkish and Iranian military leaders held talks on Wednesday over cooperation in the Syrian conflict and counter-terrorism, officials said, during a rare visit to Nato-member Turkey by the Islamic Republic’s military chief of staff.
Baqeri met his Turkish counterpart on Tuesday and Turkey’s Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli on Wednesday in what Turkish media said was the first visit by an Iranian chief of staff since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
He also met President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.
Turkey and Iran have supported rival sides in Syria’s six-year-old conflict.
Turkey is concerned that the Syrian chaos has empowered Kurdish forces who it says are closely tied to the long-running insurgency in its southeastern regions, as well as IS fighters who have waged attacks inside Turkey, and is working with Iran and Russia to reduce the fighting in some areas.
An Iranian source said Baqeri was accompanied by the head of the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s most powerful security entity.
“There have been no such visits between the two countries for a long time, but considering regional developments and security issues — border security and the fight against terrorism — there was a need for such a visit,” Baqeri told Iranian state television on arrival on Tuesday.
The Iranian source said that, in addition to the war in Syria, the two sides would discuss the conflict in Iraq as well as dealing with Kurdish fighters in the Turkish-Iranian border region, where Turkish media say Turkey has started building a frontier wall.
Turkey, Iran and Russia agreed in May to set up “de-escalation zones” in Syria to try to stem the fighting in some parts of the country, including the northern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey and has since been overrun by militants linked to a former Al Qaeda affiliate.
That has thrown into question any suggestion that the three countries could deploy a force to police the Idlib region.
“The negotiations regarding the Idlib issue are still ongoing,” Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber on Wednesday.
“After the Iranian chief of staff, the Russian chief of staff will also come to Turkey,” he added.
Turkey has said for months that it is close to buying an S-400 missile defence system from Russia, and Erdogan said in July that the deal had already been signed. — Reuters
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