The foreign ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey may meet in Moscow on Wednesday, January 11, the Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Sunday.
According to the daily, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who visited Damascus and met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on January 4, may join the trilateral meeting. According to the agreement, the talks in Moscow should prepare the ground for a summit with the participation of the presidents of Russia, Syria and Turkey, the newspaper wrote.
According to the newspaper, the UAE has offered a venue for such a summit. If a trilateral summit meeting is held in Moscow, a high-ranking Emirati representative may attend it, Asharq Al-Awsat noted.
The newspaper reported that there are now contacts concerning the organization of the January 23 meeting in Geneva between representatives of the four states (the UAE, Russia, Syria and Turkey) and UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen. The Norwegian diplomat plans to visit Damascus and meet with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in late January.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat sources, at the Geneva meeting, the UAE "intends to reaffirm its position in support of normalizing relations with Damascus and to announce funding for a number of projects in the electricity and economic sectors as part of UN-authorized international assistance to Syria that does not violate Western sanctions."
US position
At a January 6 briefing, White House National Security Council (NSC) Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said that the US opposes other countries normalizing relations with Syria, but wants to see the outcome of a possible high-level dialogue between Ankara and Damascus. He also assured that the US would not allow "the Kurds to pay for the possible normalization of relations between Turkey and Syria".
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not rule out a personal meeting with al-Assad "for the sake of peace in Syria" following talks between the foreign ministers of the two countries. The Turkish leader said December 15 that he had offered Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold a trilateral meeting with al-Assad. He said that this summit should be preceded by talks at the level of representatives of special services, defense and foreign ministers.
Negotiations between the heads of the military departments of the three countries were held in Moscow on December 28.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
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Based on materials from TASS