Turkey announces ‘trilateral summit’ on Syria with Russia and Iran
Turkey announced a “trilateral summit” between Ankara, Tehran, and Moscow in August. This is the latest of numerous meetings the three countries have had regarding Syria that began with a ceasefire in 2016. It also reflects the growing Russian influence and its efforts to keep the Syrian crisis from escalating while working closely with Turkey on military deals.
The latest summit, announced by Turkish Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, is supposed to focus on tensions in Idlib, Syria, where Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels have been facing off against the Syrian regime.
There are also numerous extremist fighters in Idlib, many of which are linked to al-Qaeda. A US airstrike in northern Syria on June 30 targeted al-Qaeda. Turkey has been backing the Syrian rebels for years, but since 2016 has played an increased role in Syria, eventually taking over Afrin and setting up observation points in Idlib. Syrian regime forces and Turkish forces have recently exchanged fire near an observation point leading to concerns there could be a wider war.
Russia doesn’t want that. It wants to deliver its S-400 air defense to Turkey and also keep the Syrian regime under Bashar Assad in power. Turkey appears to be working on the Iran-Russia summit and another summit with Russia, Germany, and French officials in September. That would be a game changer for Ankara’s prestige and role in Syria and the region.
Oddly, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported earlier on Thursday that the meeting was scheduled for late July. The same report, apparently confused as to the date, said the final details of the meeting had not been arranged. This seems to show that Iran’s media is behind the curve and that Turkey has played a more central role. Syrian state media and Russian news agency Tass did not report the upcoming meeting Thursday.
Previous summits took place in February 2019 in Sochi, September 2018 in Tehran, April 2018 in Turkey, and November 2017 in Sochi, as well as a meeting between the foreign ministers of the three countries in April 2019 in Kazakhstan.
In the past, these meetings have covered important discussions of ceasefires and attempted at providing a kind of road map for ending the eight-year Syrian civil war. However, the next meeting also comes amid Turkey-US tensions, Iran-US tensions, and tensions between Israel and Iran over Syria. Russia, Turkey, and Iran therefore share a common difficult relationship with Washington. That means they may increasingly see eye to eye on Syria even if Russia and Iran are on one side of the Syrian conflict and Turkey ostensibly on the other.
All of them oppose the US role in eastern Syria.