Presidents of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran’s Massoud Pezekian today called for unity in Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad during a meeting of Muslim countries in Cairo.

Turkey has always supported the anti-regime, unlike Iran which was a supporter of Assad.

In his speech, Erdogan, who is making his second trip to Egypt this year, called for reconciliation in Syria, as well as “restoration of territorial integrity and unity” in the country.

He expressed hope for “a Syria free of terrorism,” referring specifically to the Kurdish separatists of the PKK, whom Ankara is fighting, where “all religious communities and all ethnic groups will live side by side in peace.”

The president of Iran underlined for his part that “in the last 14 months or more, the Middle East region, specifically Gaza and southern Lebanon, and henceforth Syria, has been the target of massive attacks by the Israeli abusive regime.”

“It is our religious duty, legal and humane, to prevent further losses by taking practical and immediate measures,” he said.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Pezeskian said Iran “supports any intra-Palestinian agreement that is acceptable to the Palestinian people and that has the consent of all Palestinian groups.”

“Putting pressure on the (Zionist) regime to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to attacks against Lebanon and Syria should be the moral and humanitarian priority of countries in the region and members of the D-8 organization,” he said. , according to Iranian television.

In Syria, Pezeskian called for inclusive participation of all groups in the future government as well as “respect for different denominations and religions.”

In addition to Turkey and Iran, the group of eight major Muslim developing countries, established in 1997 and known as the D-8 (Developing-8), includes Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Cairo summit was also an opportunity for a meeting between Bangladesh’s interim president Mohammad Yunus and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Yunus said he wanted to resolve outstanding disputes since his country’s bloody 1971 secession from Pakistan and “agreed to strengthen (bilateral) relations”, at the risk of testing already frosty relations with India.

Ties between Dhaka and New Delhi have been strained since the August ouster of Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Hasina, who was backed by India, where she took refuge in exile.

A special session of the summit will be devoted to Gaza and Lebanon.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is present at the summit, urged the international community to adopt “a single standard of justice” and ensure that Israel is “held accountable and punished for its violations of international law” in Gaza, Lebanon and the Syria.

The summit marks the first visit by an Iranian president to Egypt since February 2013. Relations between Egypt and Iran have been strained for decades, but diplomatic contacts have increased recently with the rise to power of a reformist president.