Heading a military delegation, the top Turkish general is going to hold talks with Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri.

He was officially received by the top Iranian general Baqeri upon his arrival in the capital on Monday.

During his trip, made at the official invitation of general Baqeri, the two sides will discuss Iran-Turkey defense ties, the regional developments, cooperation on the border affairs, and the fight against terrorism.

The semi-autonomous Kurdish region’s moves for secession from Iraq will be also on the agenda of their talks.

The Iraqi Kurdistan Region went ahead with its plan to hold the referendum on September 25, while Iraq’s neighbors and countries in the Middle East, including Iran and Turkey, had voiced opposition to such a move and supported the Baghdad central government.

Later, thousands of Kurdish people in favor of KRG’s secession from Iraq took to the streets in Erbil, with some waving Israeli flags to celebrate.

No one in the region, except Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, endorsed the referendum, and all neighbors have warned that the secession plan would bring instability to the region and disintegrate Iraq.

Pressure has been building on officials in Erbil, Kurdistan’s regional capital, over the referendum, with regional carriers, including Turkish Airlines, Egypt Air and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines submitting to Baghdad’s request to suspend their flights serving Iraqi Kurdistan.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday, Mahmoud Vaezi, the Iranian president’s Chief of Staff, said President Rouhani’s trip to New York will be a short and busy one.

During his trip, the president will deliver a speech at the UN General Assembly, Vaezi said.

He added that on the sidelines of the General Assembly, Rouhani will also attend meetings with Iranian expatriates living in the US, Muslims and political elites as well as media men.

Rouhani will participate in discussions at the General Assembly session in New York, which runs from September 19 to 25.

The general debate would revolve around ‘Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet’.

The crisis over the security forces’ fierce response to a series of Rohingya militant attacks is the biggest problem Suu Kyi has faced since becoming Myanmar’s leader last year. Critics have called for Suu Kyi to be stripped of her Nobel peace prize for failing to do more to halt the strife.

In her first address to the UN General Assembly as national leader in September last year, Suu Kyi defended her government’s efforts to resolve the crisis over treatment of the Muslim minority, Reuters reported.

This year, her party spokesman said she would not be attending, although he said he was unsure why.

“She’s never afraid of facing criticism or confronting problems. Perhaps she’s got more pressing matters here to deal with,” Aung Shin, the spokesman, told Reuters.

International pressure has been growing on Myanmar to end the violence in the western state of Rakhine that began on Aug. 25 when Rohingya militants attacked about 30 police posts and an army camp.

The attacks triggered a sweeping military counter-offensive that refugees say is aimed at pushing Rohingya out of Myanmar.

Reports from refugees and rights groups paint a picture of widespread attacks on Rohingya villages in the north of Rakhine by the security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who have put numerous Muslim villages to the torch.

But Myanmar authorities have denied that the security forces, or Buddhist civilians, have been setting the fires, instead blaming the insurgents. Nearly 30,000 Buddhist villagers have also been displaced, they say.

The Trump administration has called for protection of civilians, and Bangladesh says all of the refugees will have to go home and it has called for safe zones to be created in Myanmar to enable them to do so.

But China, which competes with the United States for influence in the Southeast Asian nation, said on Tuesday it backed Myanmar’s efforts to safeguard “development and stability”.

The military, which ruled with an iron fist for almost 50 years until it began a transition to democracy in 2011, retains important political powers and is in full control of security. Suu Kyi has no say over those matters.

The UN Security Council is to meet on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time since the latest crisis erupted. British UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said he hoped there would be a public statement agreed by the council.

However, rights groups denounced the 15-member council for not holding a public meeting. Diplomats have said China and Russia would likely object to such a move and protect Myanmar if there was any push for council action to try and end the crisis.