On Thursday, the Russian, Turkish and Iranian presidents will meet in the Russian coastal city of Sochi for a summit on Syria.
According to a Turkish Presidency statement on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will depart for Russia on Thursday to attend the fourth trilateral summit on Syria.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani will also attend the summit, the statement added.
“The joint efforts, conducted on the ground and within the political process created by the Astana track, in order to find a lasting solution to the Syrian conflict, will be reviewed at the summit,” it read.
Erdogan will address regional issues and bilateral relations during his bilateral meetings with Russian and Iranian counterparts, it said.
The three leaders are expected to concentrate on a long-term settlement to the Syrian crisis at the fourth trilateral meeting slated for Thursday.
They will also discuss the increased violence in Syria’s northwestern Idleb, the US withdrawal from Syria, and the ongoing efforts to form a Syrian constitutional committee.
Turkey and Russia, together with Iran, are the guarantor countries which brokered a cease-fire in Syria in December 2016, leading to the Astana talks, which are running parallel to the Geneva talks.
The last trilateral summit was held in Iranian capital Tehran with a focus on the latest situation in the de-escalation zone in Idleb. It wrapped up with a call for a cease-fire in Idleb.
After a Sochi meeting between Erdogan and Putin last September, the two sides agreed to set up a demilitarized zone in Idleb, in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
The following month saw all heavy weapons withdrawn from the de-escalation zone by the Syrian opposition and anti-regime groups.
Nevertheless, according to the White Helmets, at least 30 people in Idleb were killed in January, including women and children, while another 180 were injured in Idleb, Hama and Lattakia, by regime drone attacks and artillery fire.
Last month also saw the regime targeting Idleb’s southeastern countryside, along with rural parts of Aleppo, Lattakia and Hama province.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
