Turkey, Russia, US military chiefs hold talks in Turkey

TIL Desk/World/Istanbul-Turkish, Russian and US military chiefs held talks today in the southern Turkish city of Antalya to discuss regional issues including Iraq and Syria, the Turkish army said. “Common issues relating to regional security, in particular Syria and Iraq, are being discussed at the meeting,” the army said in a statement, without elaborating further.

The meeting attended by Turkish Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford and Russian Chief of General Staff General Valery Gerasimov appears to be the first of its kind.  In the past, Antalya hosted several NATO meetings, as well as the G20 summit in 2015.

Moscow also confirmed the meeting, with the defence ministry saying in a statement to Russian news agencies: “A joint discussion on security issues in Syria and Iraq is planned at the event.” The talks come a day after Turkey stepped back from threats to strike Syrian Kurdish militia forces deployed in former Islamic State group (IS) bastion of Manbij in Syria, unless it was in cooperation with Russia and the United States.