Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed vows to drive out Syrian Kurdish militants across Turkey’s borders after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani in Ankara today.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Erdogan said, “Turkey will not stop until all regions under PYD/PKK control, including Manbij, are secured. … We will never allow either Syria or our region to be attacked by a few terrorist groups.” The PYD is the acronym for the Democratic Union Party, the dominant Kurdish group in northern Syria whose armed wing, known as the People’s Protections Units (YPG), is the US-led coalition’s top ground force in the fight against the Islamic State. PKK is short for the Kurdistan Workers Party, the militia that is fighting for Kurdish self-rule inside Turkey and is closely allied with the PYD. Turkey says they are one and the same.

The summit to discuss the trio’s future steps in Syria is part of the so-called Astana process to end hostilities between regime forces and opposition rebels through a series of cease-fires, the establishment of humanitarian corridors and the deployment of peace monitors in the country's north, west and south, which fall outside the United States’ zone of influence. Of immediate concern is the fate of Idlib province, the last remaining rebel stronghold on the Turkish border where infighting among jihadi groups is weakening their grip.

In a statement issued at the conclusion of the summit, the three presidents declared there was no military solution to the seven-year Syrian conflict and "reiterated the necessity to assist the Syrians in restoring the unity of their country and in achieving a political solution of the ongoing conflict through an inclusive, free, fair and transparent Syrian-led and Syrian-owned process."