Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran on Tuesday for three rounds of bilateral talks and a summit of the "troika" of countries - guarantors of a Syrian settlement within the Astana format.
An Ilyushin 96 carrying the Russian head of state landed at the airport in the Iranian capital, and a guard of honor was lined up and a red carpet laid out beside it. However, there was a hitch in the protocol of the meeting: it took about 20 minutes to get the self-propelled gangway exactly in place and then to re-carpet it in two attempts.
Putin descended the gangway, exchanged greetings with those greeting him and got into his waiting Aurus limousine to leave for talks with the Iranian leadership.
The weather in Tehran is hot, with the temperature reaching 38 degrees Celsius.
The agenda of the visit
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the head of state, said Monday that Putin will begin the visit with a meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Then he is scheduled to have talks with Iran's spiritual leader and Ali Khamenei, as well as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the evening, the heads of Russia, Iran and Turkey will gather for a summit of the countries - guarantors of the Syrian settlement. A joint statement by the presidents of the member states of the Astana troika will be adopted in Tehran following the talks on July 19. They will also make a statement to the media.
The Astana format of the political settlement in Syria was initiated by Russia, Iran and Turkey, which also acted as guarantors of a peaceful settlement of the Syrian conflict. Representatives of official Damascus and the Syrian opposition delegation were involved in the talks, which began in January 2017 in the Kazakh capital Astana. Despite the renaming of Astana to Nur-Sultan in 2019, the name of the format remained the same.
The meeting of the presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey was planned to be held in the Islamic Republic back in 2020, but the event was repeatedly postponed due to the pandemic. The possibility of reducing the format to a videoconference was repeatedly raised. However, as Russian Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan noted in an interview with TASS, "nothing can replace face-to-face meetings, which are more effective and have a more trusting character". Ushakov agrees with him and believes that "it is certainly more logical and expedient to discuss such sensitive issues as the Syrian settlement in a face-to-face format".
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS