ISTANBUL: Top diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey met today in Antalya to discuss the civil war in Syria ahead of a three-way summit in the Russian city of Sochi on Wednesday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran and in the southern Turkish city for the closed-door meeting, an official said.
In a statement afterwards, Lavrov called the meeting "very productive" and said the envoys had agreed on "all the main issues", without further details.
The meeting comes as violence is diminishing in Syria's six-year war although a political solution still seems out of reach.
Moscow, Tehran and Ankara are sponsoring the so-called Astana peace talks, named for the Kazakh capital where they are regularly held, which calls for the creation of "de- escalation" zones in key areas of Syria.
Although Turkey has supported rebels looking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's government, it has muted its critiques of the Syrian regime, which is backed by Russia and Iran.
"Thanks to the Astana talks, we have allowed the ceasefire to take hold on the ground with the hope of 'de- escalation' zones," Cavusoglu told Turkey's Anadolu news agency.
He said it was now time to focus on combatting Islamic State fighters while "putting more emphasis on the political process" for ending the Syrian war.
But Cavusoglu said Turkey still remained opposed to any talks involving the Kurdish YPG militia of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which formed the backbone of the campaign to push IS fighters out of Raqa, Syria, last month.
The YPG, now part of the US-armed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), emerged from the same leftist movement as the PKK Kurdish separatists fighting in Turkey, which considers it a terrorist group.
Cavusoglu also said the envoys had discussed a deployment of Russian and Iranian forces to secure the "de-escalation zone" near Syria's Idlib Province "as soon as possible".
The province is largely held by a jihadist group formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, even though Syrian forces recaptured the neighbouring city of Aleppo late last year.
Zarif, speaking on Iranian television, said he was hoping for "a good summit on Monday and to turn the black and bitter page on terrorism in Syria." Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Hassan Rouhani for the Sochi summit, where talks on reducing violence and ensuring humanitarian aid are on the agenda.
According to the Anadolu news agency, Putin and Erdogan have already met five times this year and spoken by telephone 13 times.
Erdogan last met Putin for talks in Sochi on November 13, agreeing on the need to boost elements for a lasting settlement.