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Saudi king, Turkey president meet in Riyadh to discuss Syria

A picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on December 29, 2015 shows Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attending a welcoming ceremony held in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. (Photo via AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have held talks in Riyadh to discuss the situation in Syria.

Salman and Erdogan met in the Al-Yamamah Palace on Tuesday hours after the Turkish president arrived in the Saudi capital for a third such visit to Saudi Arabia this year.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said talks were focused on bilateral relations and the developments on regional and international levels.

Erdogan said before the trip that his government and the Saudis are working “in solidarity and consultation” to find what he described as a political solution to the conflict in Syria. Both Riyadh and Ankara have been working to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. The two sides are widely accused of supporting a deadly foreign-backed militancy in Syria.

Other senior Saudi royals and officials, including the kingdom’s crown prince, the deputy crown prince, and the ministers of finance, foreign affairs and information also attended the meeting. Erdogan had the ministers of economy, energy and foreign affairs in his delegation to Riyadh as one of his main agendas in the trip is to discuss an expansion in energy cooperation.

The Saudi-Turkish relations have improved since Salman became the new monarch in Riyadh, with one of the main factors being the two countries’ backing of the militants in Syria. The ties were highly strained under the late King Abdullah, who saw Turkey’s support of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as a destabilizing threat to the Middle East.


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