TEHRAN — Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian traveled to Moscow on Tuesday to attend a four-way meeting with his Syrian, Turkish and Russian counterparts in a summit hosted by the Kremlin.
Prior to the Iranian minister's departure, the spokesman for the country's Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, told reporters in Tehran that the Iranian side is pushing to "bridge differences" between Syria and Turkey and help cement peace and stability in the region.
The four-way meeting is expected to focus on tensions between Syria and Turkey. Ankara has frequently threatened to launch a ground incursion into Syria's north, where control of swaths of territory by Kurdish fighters has unsettled the Turkish government. Such relative autonomy, Turkey fears, would pose a menace to its security if not inspire its marginalized Kurdish minority.
"We understand Turkey's security concerns in Syria," Kanaani said, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. He noted, however, that Ankara's worries could be alleviated with dialogue rather than a military solution.