Turkey, Ankara, 8 August / corr. Trend A.Aleskerov / The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Turkey next week. A meeting with Rejeb Tayyib Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, is scheduled during this visit. During the meeting, Erdogan will inform Ahmadinejad about Ankara's last initiatives on a conflict settlement between countries of the region and ask Iran to hold milder position on eliminating crisis around the nuclear program, the Turkish observers said.
Recently, Ankara has advanced a number of diplomatic initiatives on the conflict settlement in the Middle East. On the one hand, Turkey mediates between Israel and Palestine, Lebanon and Israel, Israel and Syria, and on the other hand, tries to solve crisis between Iran and the United States. Ankara supports territorial integrity of Iraq and makes efforts to improve economic and trade relations with all countries of the region.
Within the framework of active mediator role between Israel and Syria, on 4 August Prime Minister Erdogan met with Bashar Assad, the Syrian President, who came to Turkey with his family to rest. The Turkish media reported that this meeting lasted five hours. The leaders appraised mutual relations between Turkey and Syria and exchanged their views on the solution of nuclear crisis between the United States and Iran. Assad told the Prime Minister Erdogan about his contacts in Iran, about proposals, developed for solution of the problem and Iran's position on this issue. Erdogan, in his turn, also informed Assad of the instructions and advice, made to Iran, and stressed the importance of continuation of the talks between the United States and Iran. Velid Mualim, the Syrian Foreign Minister, and Ahmed Davutoglu, the consultant of the Turkish Prime Minister, participated in this meeting, as well.
After Ankara visit of Stiven Hedly, the US President's advisor on national security, Turkey became a place of intensive diplomatic exchange on the Iranian problem. The US Administration official expressed his concern on the Iranian nuclear projects to the Turkish leadership. In his turn, representatives of official Ankara repeatedly stated that they were prepared to do their best in order to solve existing conflict through dialogue.
The Turkey visit of Ahmedinejad, the Iranian President, will answer to a question on how Ankara's diplomatic efforts contributed approaching of positions of Washington and Tehran.