Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Jawad Zarif on Wednesday visited Ankara for his third set of talks with top Turkish officials in less than one-and-a-half-months despite standing on opposite sides of the Syria conflict, sources said.

Zarif met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in an unscheduled trip to Ankara on his way back to Tehran from a visit to New York for the UN General Assembly, a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP.

They discussed bilateral and regional issues, including the Syrian crisis, the source added.

Zarif was later due to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the premier’s office said.

Turkey has launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria, claiming its aim is to cleanse its frontier of terror groups including the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorists.

Source: AFP