The next few days will be days of intense "ferment" at the political-military level for Turkey, since on the one hand the Iranian President will pay an official visit and discuss with Erdogan a number of burning issues for the two countries and on the other hand the Turkish Parliament will probably decide for or against Sweden's membership in NATO.
The above, as expected for coordination purposes, was preceded by a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at the UN headquarters.
Earlier, Lavrov met at the UN with the foreign ministers of Iran, Lebanon and Indonesia, coincidentally, we don't think
For the record, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's plane traveled from Moscow to the United States via the northern route, avoiding overflights from other countries, in 12 hours and 45 minutes.
What did Lavrov and Fidan discuss?
According to a reputable Russian international media outlet, the Foreign Ministers of Russia and Turkey discussed achieving coordination on issues related to the Middle East and Transcaucasia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said, "the top diplomats touched on the implementation of key Russian-Turkish projects in the energy sector and discussed the schedule of upcoming bilateral contacts."
"The sides exchanged views on a number of international issues, confirming the demand for coordination of our countries' steps in the interests of finding mutually acceptable solutions to acute regional problems , especially the situation in the Gaza Strip, Syria, the Middle East in general, as well as the Black Sea region and Transcaucasia," the ministry said.
"The sides had a substantive review of current issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation," the ministry said. "The sides stressed the importance of further joint work in the interests of maintaining and further expanding mutually beneficial ties."
Iran's President expected in Turkey on Wednesday - Measures against Israel-US in the pipeline
We attach particular importance to the fact that the Lavrov-Fidan meeting took place only a few days before Iranian President Raisi's official visit to Turkey.
According to Iranian International Media, "Heading a high-ranking political-economic delegation, Raisi will depart Tehran for Ankara on Wednesday at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Turkish president will officially receive his Iranian counterpart and the two presidents are scheduled to have a private meeting.
Raisi and Erdogan will co-chair the 8th meeting of the Iran-Turkey High Level Cooperation Council and then attend a joint press conference.
The two presidents also plan to attend a joint meeting of traders and economic agents of the two countries.
Raisi will also hold a meeting with Iranian nationals residing in Turkey.
The Iranian president cancelled his planned visit to Turkey after the Daesh terrorist attack in the southeastern city of Kerman on January 3, in which 94 people died and 211 others were injured.
Erdogan had first announced in November that "Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is coming to us on the 28th" to focus on forging a joint response to the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but the visit did not take place due to their conflicting schedules. foreign ministers.
In a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdolahian on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said his country is ready to host President Raisi in the near future after seeing the trip cancelled twice for different reasons.
Both Turkey and Iran oppose the illegal US presence in Syria and have strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians.
What is to come
Our assessment is that there will be, with Russia's agreement, an Iranian-Turkish condemnatory statement against Israel in Gaza and the continued American presence in Syria, since on both issues there is a convergence of views.
However, we do not believe that there will be a decision to take any form of joint military action against Israel at this stage.
However, we do not share the same view regarding the military coordination of the two countries in the action against the PKK in Northern Iraq and the YPG Kurds in Syria, or at least ensuring Iran's tolerance for the latter, since we consider it certain that a large-scale Turkish offensive will take place in the near future in Iraq and Syria.
Finally, as contradictory as our belief may sound, and always bearing in mind the largely contradictory policy of the Turkish President, the latter will most likely pass through his country's Parliament the accession of Sweden to NATO, provided of course that he gets the F-16s from the US.
Otherwise the above decision will be negative.
