Iranian Speaker Holds Talks with Turkish PM in Istanbul

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan behind closed doors in Istanbul for two hours on Saturday, Turkish news agency Anatolia reported without providing details.

Larijani is on a regional tour, having already been to Syria and also planning to visit Lebanon.

Iran is a close ally of the Syrian regime, and just Friday said Turkey's request to site Patriot missiles on its border with Syria only "complicates" the conflict in the Arab country.

"Not only does it not help resolve the situation in Syria but it will also aggravate and complicate the situation," foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, quoted on state television.

"The insistence (of certain countries) to resolve the Syrian crisis through military means is the main cause of tensions and threats in the region," he said.

Turkey turned to its NATO partners earlier this week to request the deployment of surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria.