Putin, Rouhani, Erdogan Discuss Syria In Sochi

Putin, Rouhani, Erdogan Discuss Syria in Sochi

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hosted a summit on Syria with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in the resort city of Sochi

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th February, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday hosted a summit on Syria with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in the resort city of Sochi.

This is the fourth time the three guarantor states of the Syrian peace have convened since 2017 in an effort to find a way out of the eight-year war. Turkey has proposed hosting the next meeting.

Putin praised the trilateral talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rohani as "constructive." Rouhani said they had reiterated the need to preserve Syria's territorial integrity.

The trio identified key areas for future talks, according to Putin. He added that such close coordination between the three ensured an effective joint work to bring a lasting peace to Syria.

The Russian president also urged the United Nations and other international organizations to take on a more active role in rebuilding Syria.

Russia, Iran and Turkey have brokered a series of intra-Syrian negotiations in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, overshadowing efforts by the United Nations to host a parallel peace process in Geneva.

The next Astana talks will take place in April, according to the leaders' joint statement. Several nations have proposed joining the talks as observers.

The leaders agreed that the announced US military withdrawal from Syria was "a positive step" that would help stabilize the country "where ultimately the control of the legitimate government must be restored," Putin said.

US President Donald Trump announced the pullout in December but had not set a timeline for the withdrawal of 2,000 US troops, many of them in Kurdish-dominated northeastern Syria.

Iran's Rouhani slammed the United States for a destructive role it had played in the middle East and Afghanistan over the past two decades, and urged Washington to change its approach.

Russia, Iran and Turkey have promised to push for the "soonest possible" launch of a constitutional committee in Syria that will deal with the fundamentals of the Syrian state system, Putin told reporters.

The committee, which will rewrite the national constitution to make it more inclusive, has been unable to convene for months under the UN auspices amid disputes over who should sit on it.

The Turkish president has asked his Russian and Iranian counterparts to assist Ankara in stopping "terrorists" from flooding Turkey.

Speaking at a joint press conference, Erdogan said Turkey would never allow the emergence of a "terrorist corridor" into its southern territories, and expected aid from the two partners states in preventing this from happening.

Turkey has been seeking the creation of a "safe zone" in southeastern Syria under its control. The areas have been run by Kurdish fighters with US military backing, while Ankara sees the Kurdish Syrian YPG militia as an extension of the PKK separatist group operating in its south.

Separately from the Syrian peace process, the Turkish president announced that Ankara was ready to set up a non-dollar financial mechanism for trading with Iran.

The United States reimposed last year financial sanctions on Tehran that were waived under the 2015 nuclear deal.

The European Union proposed a special purpose vehicle for trade, called INSTEX, in an effort to salvage the pact by ensuring that third parties can bypass sanctions on trade with Iran, but Tehran has criticized it as inadequate.