ZCZC
BFF-23
RUSSIA-TURKEY-IRAN-DIPLOMACY-WRAP
Russia, Turkey, Iran to hold Syria summit
SOCHI, Russia, Feb 14, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin
was set to host his Iranian and Turkish counterparts Thursday to discuss how
to resolve the conflict in Syria as Islamic State jihadists made a last stand
in the east of the country and Washington prepares to withdraw troops.
A flurry of diplomatic efforts this week are focusing on the eight-year
conflict in which more than 350,000 people have died.
The international anti-IS coalition is set to meet on the sidelines of the
Munich Security Conference while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will
attend a conference on the Middle East in Warsaw.
At their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin and Iran’s Hassan
Rouhani — who back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — and Turkey’s rebel-
backing Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to discuss ways to advance intra-Syrian
dialogue.
Russia has been a key player in the conflict since launching military
intervention in 2015 in support of Assad’s regime, which now controls almost
two-thirds of the country.
The Astana peace process, launched on the initiative of Moscow along with
Iran and Turkey, has eclipsed parallel talks led by the United Nations
without coming up with a definitive solution to the conflict.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday the leaders would
discuss forming a special committee tasked with drawing up a new post-war
constitution for Syria.
In late December, the United Nations admitted it had failed to put such a
committee in place, citing problems with changes wanted by Damascus to the
list of proposed members.
Lavrov said Wednesday: “We are ready to search for a solution to this
situation… We will continue this work.”
The meeting will be the fourth summit between the countries’ leaders since
November 2017.
It comes as Kurdish and Arab fighters in the Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) with support from the Washington-led coalition on Saturday launched a
“final” offensive against the jihadists’ last holdout in the eastern Deir
Ezzor province.
– ‘Nest of terrorists’ –
Following their emergence in 2014 and proclamation of a “caliphate” in
parts of Syria and Iraq, the IS jihadists controlled major cities, but they
are now squeezed into a few square kilometres.
Around 2,000 US troops are due to be pulled out of the region following a
surprise announcement by President Donald Trump in December. But Washington
has still not given a precise timeline for this.
The most recent summit between the three leaders was in September in Iran,
when they made public their differing views on the future of Syria’s
northeastern province of Idlib.
At a separate meeting later that month, Putin and Erdogan managed to block
an offensive planned by Syria on Idlib. Instead they agreed to create and
jointly monitor a buffer zone around the vast region where rebel groups still
remain and Assad’s forces have not managed to take control.
Erdogan and Putin are set to discuss the future of the province at a
separate meeting ahead of their summit with Rouhani.
A Russian-Turkish agreement calls for all radical fighters — including
those belonging to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance led by Syria’s former
Al-Qaeda affiliate — to leave the area. But its fighters have since
strengthened their hold on the region.
Lavrov said Wednesday in Sochi that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had “seized 90
percent of the territory” and stressed that no agreements permit “the eternal
preservation of this nest of terrorists on Syrian soil”.
“We will do all we can to help the Syrian government and its armed forces
to solve the problem of liberating their territory,” Lavrov added.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1028 hrs