Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi failed to show up Tuesday for a summit in Ankara that Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier announced to reporters, but which Tehran itself never officially confirmed.
The confusion around Raisi’s visit underscores the tensions that linger between the two regional powers despite their joint views on the Israel-Hamas war.
The Turkish presidency told AFP that Erdogan had no meetings planned for Tuesday and did not explain whether the visit had been cancelled or postponed.
Erdogan had personally announced the Iranian president’s first official visit to Turkey on his return flight from a summit between regional leaders in Riyadh on November 11 that was also attended by Raisi.
“Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is coming to us on the 28th of the month,” Erdogan told reporters on board the flight. The visit was also announced by Turkey’s state media and discussed heavily on television as late as Monday.
But it was never officially confirmed by Raisi’s office or announced by Iran’s media. Erdogan and Raisi spoke by phone on Sunday evening, and the top diplomats for the two countries did the same on Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed “his hope that with the continuation of high-level diplomacy between the two countries, the two (sides) can see the strengthening and deepening of mutual cooperation,” the Iranian foreign ministry said after the call.
