Davutoglu meets with Ahmedinejad

On the sidelines of the 67th UN General Assembly in New York, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday upon the request of the Iranian side. During the meeting, Davutoglu told Ahmadinejad that a recent meeting of Turkish, Iranian and Egyptian officials in Cairo was of great importance to build up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Sources said that Davutoglu also called on Iranian president to use his influence to help bring pressure on the Assad regime to end the crisis in Syria, and that both sides had reaffirmed that the cooperation between Turkey and Iran was of utmost importance as Davutoglu conveyed Turkey's expectations from Iran over fight against terrorism and Turkey's unease over recent remarks by senior Iranian authorities to Iranian president. For his part, Ahmadinejad said that the remarks did not reflect the official Iranian position and his country's sensitivities. In response to a question whether the Syrian issue had created an impact on relations between Turkey and Iran, Ahmadinejad said that relations between the two countries were great and Iran has been exerting efforts to further improve them. "Our stances on the Syria issue differ from each other, but we are also acting in line with mutual respect and understanding. We are trying to coordinate our joint efforts within the contact group that we are taking place along with Turkey," Ahmadinejad noted.