Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Saturday had talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in İstanbul on the Syrian crisis, one day after he met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Today's Zaman reported.
Larijani was welcomed by Turkish Foreign Ministry and Iranian Embassy officials at İstanbul Atatürk Airport early on Saturday. The Turkish prime minister received Larijani in İstanbul at his office in Dolmabahçe in the afternoon. The meeting lasted two hours and the Israeli-Gaza conflict was also reportedly among the issues discussed by the two politicians.
Larijani's İstanbul visit follows his meeting with Iran's ally, Assad, in Damascus on Friday. Larijani criticized Turkey's recent request for Patriots from NATO against Syria after the talks.
"The internal crisis in Syria cannot be solved through the deployment of such weapons," Larijani, who is close to Iran's supreme leader, said at a news conference in Beirut where he went after leaving Syria.