The presidents of Russia, Turkey and Iran will hold a summit in Russia on Wednesday, the first of a series of international meetings aimed at relaunching the peace process after the return of Syrian troops to the latest city of the Islamic state in Syria.
On the eve of the meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Monday evening with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Sochi, southwest Russia.
“I want to congratulate you on the results achieved in Syria in the fight against terrorism,” the Kremlin quoted Putin as telling Assad. “A final and inevitable defeat of terrorists” is imminent in Syria. “It is time to move into the political process.”
A few days before new talks under UN auspices in Geneva on November 28, Putin will receive Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rowhani in the southwestern resort of Sochi.
Putin called in mid-November to “redouble efforts to ensure long-term stability” in Syria, where the six-year conflict has left at least 330,000 dead and millions of refugees.
“The stage of open war in the Syrian conflict will soon end and the issue of a political settlement will become much more vital than before,” Russian expert Agdar Kurtov told AFP.
“Russia, Iran and Turkey have their own interests in Syria and obviously have their differences, so they hold meetings to try to resolve them,” Kurtov said.
Russia, Turkey and Iran are sponsoring a deal aimed at reducing the fighting in preparation for a political deal that would end the conflict since March 2011.
The Astana agreement, the capital of the talks, has created “areas to reduce tension”. In this context, Turkey has deployed troops in Idlib (northwestern) province.
The deal allowed for a reduction in field battles but Moscow wants a political solution to the process, which has so far focused on military issues.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Sochi summit was aimed at “re-launching direct talks between the Syrian government and all opposition factions.”
The Russian military intervention in Syria changed the data, allowing the Syrian regime’s army to restore the ancient city of Palmyra and Aleppo (north) of the rebel factions.
On Sunday evening, Syrian forces also recalled the eastern city of Bou Kamal in the east of the country bordering Iraq, the last major stronghold of the organization in Syria.
– Turkish flexibility on Assad –
All attempts to end the Syrian conflict collided with the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Turkey’s role in future political talks is more important than Assad’s departure from power,” said Timur Akhmetov, an expert on the Russian Council for Foreign Affairs in Ankara.
Akhmetov said the Sochi summit would provide an opportunity for Ankara “to try to persuade Russia to stop providing diplomatic support to the Kurds,” of which fighters control part of northern Syria.
Russia’s latest initiative to unite the regime and the opposition in Russia was met with cold warring factions. No date was set for the meeting, which was announced on November 18 and was postponed without confirmation until early December.
Meanwhile, various Syrian opposition factions will meet in Riyadh on Wednesday at the invitation of Saudi Arabia, which sponsors the supreme body of negotiations, which includes the various factions of the Syrian opposition.
The meeting is aimed at uniting positions to resume negotiations in Geneva, which will focus on drafting a new constitution and holding elections.
“Any international effort should contribute to supporting the political process in Geneva and not weakening it,” said Hadi al-Bahra, a member of the Syrian opposition National Alliance.
The operation received support from Putin and US President Donald Trump in a rare joint declaration given the strained relations between Moscow and Washington.
