TEHRAN- Iran and Turkey have mutually agreed that President Ebrahim Raisi would visit Ankara shortly after canceling his planned visit following Wednesday’s terrorist blasts in Kerman.

The visit— which was scheduled to start on Thursday— was postponed following a phone conversation between President Raisi and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, during which the Turkish president expressed condolences, denounced the incident, and urged for cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, contacted his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir Adollahian, late Thursday night to “express condolences and solidarity of the government and people of Turkey with the government and people of the Islamic Republic of Iran” in the aftermath of the terrorist incident.

Amir Abdollahian appreciated high-ranking Turkish officials, including the president and foreign minister, and stressed the Iranian authorities’ attentive efforts to “accurately identify the perpetrators and planners of this barbaric and terrorist act.”

Additionally, the two foreign ministers decided that President Raisi’s formal visit to Turkey will take place soon.

Erdogan had first announced in November that “President Raisi is coming to us” on the 28th of the month to focus on forging a joint response to the Israeli invasion of Gaza, but the visit did not take place due to conflicting schedules of their foreign ministers.

Turkey and Iran both reject the illegitimate U.S. involvement in Syria and have loudly criticized Israel’s continued slaughter against Palestinians.

Late Thursday, Amir Abdollahian received a phone call from his Syrian counterpart, Faisal Mikdad, who strongly denounced the Kerman terrorist blasts and expressed condolences to the victims’ families.

Mikdad emphasized that the world must unite against terrorism and that the forces behind the atrocity must be held accountable as well as the required cooperation made to find the culprits.

He also reaffirmed Syria’s “full solidarity with the Islamic Republic of Iran, as people and leadership, and with all families of the victims who met to commemorate the human memory of martyrs of truth and justice, General Qassem Soleimani and Commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, late Abu al-Mahdi al-Muhandis,” who were assassinated in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, 2020.

“As the two countries have agreement on the necessity of combating terrorism in every way and resisting the growing Zionist tendency to take revenge on the Palestinians and their achievements in confronting the Zionist attacks on Gaza,” Amir Abdollahian said in response to the Syrian people’s show of solidarity with the Iranian people.

Amir Abdollahian was also in conversation with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jillani, who “expressed deep condolences over deaths in the dastardly terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Kerman,” according to a statement from the ministry.

“On behalf of the Government and people of Pakistan, Foreign Minister expressed solidarity with the people of Iran at this moment of grief,” it said.

Jillani termed terrorism as a common threat to both Pakistan and Iran which needs to be countered by effective measures.

Even on Thursday, Amir Abdollahian held separate phone calls with his Qatari and Sri Lankan counterparts over the recent terrorist attack in Kerman.  

During the conversations which were separately held between Amir Abdollahian and Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani and Ali Sabry, they all condemned the terrorist attack, urging for the punishment of all those behind the terrible incident. 

They also talked about the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip, calling for an end to the massacre and crimes that are being perpetrated by the Tel Aviv regime.