President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet with his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani on Sept. 7 in Iran for their third tripartite summit on seeking to end the conflict in Syria, TRT Haber television said Monday.
The summit will be held in the northern Iranian city of Tabriz, the broadcaster said.
The three leaders have previously held summits in the Russian resort city of Sochi and the Turkish capital Ankara.
A major item on the agenda at the summit is expected to be the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib which Assad wants to re-capture, to crown a string of military successes.
But Turkey has said a military operation to take Idlib risks provoking a humanitarian “catastrophe,” warning that 3.5 million people are crammed into the region.
The three guarantor countries — Turkey, Russia and Iran — initiated the Astana process to complement the U.N.-brokered talks in Geneva, to bring an end to the seven-year conflict in the country.
Within this framework, Turkey, Iran and Russia agreed to establish de-escalation zones in Idlib and parts of neighboring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo. Under the Astana agreement, Turkey is to gradually establish 12 observation points from Idlib’s north to south to monitor and sustain the current cease-fire agreement for the de-escalation zones, deliver humanitarian aid and ensure the secure return of displaced people.