Russia, turkey, iran fail to agree on idlib ceasefire
Tehran and Moscow have helped Assad turn the war against an array of opponents, while Turkey is a leading opposition supporter and has troops in Syria.
The presidents of Turkey, Iran and Russia on Friday failed to agree on a ceasefire that would forestall a Syrian government offensive in the rebel-held Idlib province which the United Nations fears could cause a humanitarian catastrophe involving tens of thousands of civilians.
Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani, meeting in Tehran for a summit of key foreign players in Syria’s war, agreed in a final statement that there could be no military solution to the conflict and it could only end through a negotiated political process.
But as Syrian government and Russian warplanes mounted air strikes in Idlib on Friday morning in a possible prelude to a full-scale offensive, Putin and Rouhani pushed back against Erdogan’s call for a truce.
The Turkish leader said he feared a massacre and Turkey could not accommodate any more refugees flooding over its border.
Putin said a ceasefire would be pointless as it would not involve Islamist militant groups it deems terrorists. Rouhani said Syria must regain control over all its territory.
Idlib is the insurgents’ only remaining major stronghold and a government offensive could be the war’s last decisive battle.
Tehran and Moscow have helped Assad turn the course of the war against an array of opponents ranging from Western-backed rebels to the Islamist militants, while Turkey is a leading opposition supporter and has troops in the country.
Their discussions in Tehran mark a crucial point in a seven-year-old war which has killed more than half a million people and forced 11 million to flee their homes.
Erdogan, in his opening remarks, said a ceasefire in Idlib would be a victory for their summit.
Putin responded: “The fact is that there are no representatives of the armed opposition here around this table. And more still, there are no representatives of Jabhat alNusra or ISIS or the Syrian army. “I think in general the Turkish president is right. It would be good,” he said. “But I can’t speak for them, and even more so can’t talk for terrorists from Jabhat alNusra or ISIS that they will stop shooting or stop using drones with bombs.”
In a series of tweets following the summit, Erdogan said resorting to methods that would disregard civilian lives would “play into the hands of terrorists.”
“If the world turns a blind eye to the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people to further the regime’s interests, we will neither watch from the sidelines nor participate in such a game,” he said.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with Putin on Friday that Iran and Russia can work together to restrain America, according his official website.
“One of the issues that the two sides can cooperate on is restraining America,” Khamenei said. “Because America is a danger for humanity and there is a possibility to restrain them.
“The Americans have faced a real defeat in Syria and have not reached their goals,” he added. In the final statement, the three agreed on the need to eliminate Islamic State, the Nusra Front and other groups linked to al Qaeda and designated as terrorists. But there were other armed opposition groups that could join any ceasefire agreement, they said.
The communique also called on the United Nations and the international community to step up humanitarian aid to Syria and help in restoring basic infrastructure assets. Efforts must be made to protect and to cre- ate conditions for the safe return of refugees, it added. Iran’s Rouhani said the battle in Syria would continue until rebels were pushed out of the whole country, especially in Idlib, but he added that any military operations should avoid hurting civilians.
“The fight against terrorism in Idlib is an indispensable part of the mission to return peace and stability to Syria, but this fight should not harm civilians and lead to a ‘scorched-earth’ policy,” Rouhani said.
Erdogan said Turkey no longer had the capacity to take in any more refugees from Syria should the government offensive in Idlib go ahead. Turkey has accepted 3.5 million refugees from Syria since the start of the war in 2011. America’s top general on Saturday said he was involved in “routine dialogue” with the White House about military options should Syria ignore US warnings against using chemical weapons in an expected assault on the enclave of Idlib.
Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said no decision had been made by the United States to employ military force in response to a future chemical attack in Syria.
“But we are in a dialogue, a routine dialogue, with the president to make sure he knows where we are with regard to planning in the event that chemical weapons are used,” he told a small group of reporters during a trip to India.
Dunford later added: “He expects us to have military options and we have provided updates to him on the development of those military options.” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has massed his army and allied forces on the front lines in the northwest, and Russian planes have joined his bombardment of rebels there, in a prelude to a widely expected assault despite objections from Turkey. This week, a top US envoy said there was “lots of evidence” that chemical weapons were being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib.
The White House has warned that the United States and its allies would respond “swiftly and vigorously” if government forces used chemical weapons in Idlib. President Donald Trump has twice bombed Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons, in April 2017 and April 2018. France’s top military official also said last week his forces were prepared to carry out strikes on Syrian targets if chemical weapons were used in Idlib. Dunford declined to comment on US intelligence about the possible Syrian preparations of chemical agents.