Al-Monitor | Hamidreza Azizi: For more than six years, the regional rivalry between Iran and Turkey and their support of different sides of the Syrian proxy war have been major obstacles to finding a political solution tothe Syrian conflict. However, therecent rapprochementbetween Tehran and Ankara has renewed hopes for the political process to proceed toward a unified solution one that seemed highly unlikely even a month ago.
Iranian Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagherisofficial visitAug. 15 to Turkey, during which he held various meetings with high-ranking Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was widely interpreted by observers as the beginning of anew erain Tehran-Ankara relations. Indeed, Bagheris position as a military and not a political official could be considered a sign that the meetings were about coordination at the operational level, rather than political discussions.
Concern over the Kurdish issue has facilitated the rapprochement between the two countries. In a May 2016Al-Monitor article, I explained how the Kurdish issue could work as a cornerstone for any Tehran-Ankara agreement regarding the Syrian crisis.