A four-party meeting on normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus (Russia, Iran, Syria, Turkey) will be held at the level of deputy foreign ministers on Monday in Moscow. The consultations are expected to be technical in nature and will allow the negotiations to begin at the level of the four countries' foreign ministers.
The meeting of deputy foreign ministers was planned back in March, but was postponed. Russian Presidential Special Representative for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov explained to TASS that the decision to postpone the meeting was taken due to the unpreparedness of some partners, rather than Moscow's request. This time, according to a source of the agency, the delegations of all the participants of the format arrived in Moscow the day before to conduct the necessary "consultations to prepare the meeting of the foreign ministers".
The Iranian side has great hopes for the work of the format. During his visit to Moscow last week, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said he discussed this topic with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said he believes Tehran and Moscow are ready to make all necessary efforts within the framework of the format to achieve the main goal - " to bring closer Turkey and Syria."
Moscow, in turn, also expects positive developments. In a commentary to TASS, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov expressed the hope that Russia's "mediation mission" "aimed at a very important strategic goal - the normalization of Syrian-Turkish relations" would end with "overall success."
On meeting composition
The original format did not imply Iran's participation. Last December, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he had offered his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a trilateral meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to normalize dialogue between Ankara and Damascus. This summit, as conceived by the head of Turkey, was to be preceded by trilateral talks at the level of representatives of special services, defense ministers and foreign ministers. In the original configuration, Moscow, Ankara and Damascus managed to hold a meeting of defense ministers by the end of last year. The contacts marked the first talks between the defense ministers of Syria and Turkey in 11 years. The ministers managed to agree on creating a joint trilateral commission, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called their work "useful" in terms of reaching a compromise on the road map to resolve the situation.
During the subsequent contacts at the level of foreign ministers, Erdogan allowed Tehran to join the commenced work of the negotiating teams, which Lavrov called logical for advancing the settlement process. Iranian Ambassador in Moscow Kazem Jalali later told TASS that Tehran would join the format. It is possible that the sides will be able to agree on tentative dates for a ministerial meeting to start work on organizing a Syrian-Turkish summit as a result of the upcoming consultations on Monday.
Relations between Ankara and Damascus worsened after the start of the conflict in Syria in 2011, when a wave of Syrian refugees poured into Turkey. Diplomatic ties between the two countries were then severed.
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Based on materials from TASS