Rouhani to participate in Baku trilateral summit

Rouhani will leave Tehran for the Azeri capital on August 8 to attend the summit with presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, and to hold talks with them.

During the meeting, which is held upon an offer by Azerbaijan’s Aliyev, the three presidents will exchange views about ways to bolster relations and discuss the latest regional developments.

In April, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Russian and Azeri counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Elmar Mammadyarov, held talks in Baku to discuss trilateral ties and cooperation. 



During their meeting, they stressed the importance of strengthening security and political and economic cooperation among the three countries.

The three foreign ministers also discussed the fight against terrorism and extremism in the region, particularly in Syria.

Iran maintains military advisers in Syria, where the government of President Bashar al-Assad is fighting an array of foreign-backed militants, including the Daesh terrorist group and al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, al-Nusra Front.

Russia, another Syrian ally, has been bombing positions of Daesh and al-Nusra Front in Syria at the official request of the Damascus government since September 2015.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011.

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

/SR