Damascus Expects Turkey-Iran-Russia Summit To Reduce Ankara's Interference - Official

Damascus Expects Turkey-Iran-Russia Summit to Reduce Ankara's Interference - Official

Damascus hopes that further high-level negotiations between Russia, Turkey, and Iran will lead to a reduction in Ankara's interference in Syria's domestic affairs, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Sputnik

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2020) Damascus hopes that further high-level negotiations between Russia, Turkey, and Iran will lead to a reduction in Ankara's interference in Syria's domestic affairs, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told Sputnik.

Mekdad stated that Moscow and Tehran had both indicated their opposition to foreign troops in Syria and shown a commitment to fighting terrorism in the country, unlike Ankara.

"So these are issues which are very important to be discussed and to convince the Turkish side that their interference and the protection of terrorist groups in Syria will not help Turkey, will not help Syria," he remarked.

The deputy foreign minister expressed his hope that the Turkish government would see that their intervention in Syrian domestic affairs would have negative consequences for Turkey's own peace and security.

"So we hope that the Turkish government is convinced that what it is doing in Syria is against its own interests and is a real challenge to peace and security in the region but also to peace and security in Turkey," Mekdad stated.

In September 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Sochi and reached an agreement to create a demilitarized zone in Idlib and establish joint patrols in the region.

In February, during a Syrian government offensive in Idlib that aimed to recapture land currently held by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organization (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia), Syrian troops shelled a Turkish military observation post, killing eight people.

Turkish forces retaliated and launched several attacks which resulted in hundreds of Syrian soldiers being "neutralized," Ankara stated.

At that time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Turkey had failed to honor its commitments in Idlib by not distinguishing between Syria's armed opposition, which is open for dialogue, and terrorist groups in the region. Ankara insisted that it implemented all of its commitments.