Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that his country welcomed Iran’s participation in the ongoing talks with Syria under Russian mediation. He added that Tehran’s presence in the talks would facilitate the elimination of terrorist threats from Syrian territory, secure his country’s borders, and guarantee the safe and voluntary return of Syrian refugees to their homeland. Kalin’s remarks, which he made in Ankara on Wednesday, came hours after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Moscow supported Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s interest in settling and normalizing the situation between the two neighbors, Türkiye and Syria. During a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, in Moscow on Tuesday, Lavrov announced that an agreement was reached over Iran’s participation in the normalization process. “It is logical that the upcoming contacts be dedicated to the normalization of Turkish-Syrian relations, with the mediation of Russia and Iran (the two guarantors with Türkiye of the Astana process),” he said. Lavrov and Shoukry stressed the need to preserve the unity, integrity and sovereignty of Syria, resolve its political crisis, and respect the rights of its citizens to determine their own destiny and the fate of their state. Earlier this week, Erdogan emphasized the necessity to maintain meetings between his country, Russia and Syria, with the possibility of Iran joining, in order to achieve stability in northern Syria. He added that his country’s relations with Russia were “based on mutual respect.” “Although we have not been able to obtain at the present time the result we desire, with regard to developments in northern Syria, we call for holding tripartite meetings between Türkiye, Russia and Syria,” the Turkish president said during a meeting with a group of youth on Sunday, as part of his campaign for the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14.