ANKARA — Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that Ankara and Damascus would hold low-level talks next week in a bid to continue political dialogue between the Turkish and Syrian governments.

Speaking at a joint presser with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who paid a solidarity visit to Turkey after the Feb. 6 earthquakes, Cavusoglu said Iran would also join the talks that will be below the ministerial level. The parties are working on preparations for a possible ministerial meeting between Cavusoglu and his Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in a four-way format, but only if the upcoming meetings in Russia make progress.

“Russia has offered to hold technical talks next week in preparation for a possible meeting between the foreign ministers. We will send our deputy foreign minister to Moscow and the Iranian side will also join these talks,” said Cavusoglu. 

The Syrian and Turkish foreign ministers were expected to gather soon after the first high-level meeting between the Turkish, Syrian and Russian defense ministers and intelligence chiefs in Moscow in December. Yet, the progress after more than a decade of hostilities between Ankara and Damascus has apparently hit a snag, as Cavusoglu’s cautious tone indicated.