Turkey-Iran Leaders’ First Meeting at D-8 Summit in Egypt Focuses on Gaza and Syria Crisis

Turkey-Iran Leaders’ First Meeting at D-8 Summit in Egypt Focuses on Gaza and Syria Crisis

Cairo, Egypt: Against the backdrop of the Gaza conflict and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Egypt is hosting the D-8 summit, where the top leaders of Turkey and Iran are participating. The participating countries in the summit are Turkey, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Egypt.

A special session of the summit will discuss Gaza and Syria, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also in attendance.

At this summit, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian will meet for the first time since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad lost power. Turkey has historically supported opposition to Assad, while Iran has supported his regime.

Additionally, although relations between Egypt and Iran have been strained for a long time, Cairo’s role as a mediator in the Gaza war has led to improved diplomatic communication between the two countries.

Before the summit, Iran's top diplomat stated that he hopes the summit will "send a strong message to the world that Israeli aggression and the wars in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria should immediately cease."