Azerbaijan engineers rare summit with in-conflict Middle East and Asian leaders

For the first time since the outbreak of the Iran war, top delegations from Middle Eastern and Asian countries engaged in ongoing political and military conflicts met in Baku on Thursday for the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), hosted by Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has brought together Israel's President Isaac Herzog, Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa bin Shaheen Al Marar and a Palestinian delegation led by Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin together with regional and Asian leaders, including China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, for the seventh edition of the CICA summit.