Talks with UN on Syria statute get under way
DIPLOMATS FROM RUSSIA, IRAN AND TURKEY HOPEFUL OF GOOD RESULT
High-level diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey were meeting yesterday with the UN envoy for Syria about creating a committee to revise the war-battered country’s constitution.
The talks in Geneva under UN envoy Staffan de Mistura come amid concerns that he and other UN officials have expressed about a looming battle for northern Idlib province - the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria after more than seven years of war that is now home to some 3 million civilians.
Hussain Jaberi Ansari, a special envoy for Iran’s foreign minister, said a “good result” could emerge from the talks.
Asked whether Iran shared concerns about a possible humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, Jaberi Ansari replied: “We are worried too. We are trying to avoid this.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, declined to answer a question on his way into the talks about whether Russia would stop its air strikes.
De Mistura met informally with members of the three delegations on Monday.
The talks are set to focus on creating a constitutional committee under Syria’s Russianand Iranian-backed regime. Russia, Turkey and Iran have been working together as “guarantors” for a series of talks around ending Syria’s war. Turkey has taken in 3.5 million refugees from its neighbour.
On Monday, air strikes on Idlib and Hama provinces forced some people to flee their homes, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Meanwhile, a Daesh ambush killed 21 regime fighters in Syria’s southern province of Sweida, a Britain-based war monitor said yesterday.
The attack occurred late on Monday in the rural Tulul Al Safa area of the province, some 100 kilometres southeast of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
‘Stop bloodshed’
Also yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Russia and Iran to halt a looming “humanitarian disaster” in Idlib, saying Syrians there could not be left to the mercy of President Bashar Al Assad.
Erdogan has called for a ceasefire in Idlib. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Erdogan said the West had an “obligation to stop the next bloodshed” but that regime allies Moscow and Tehran were “likewise responsible for stopping this humanitarian disaster”.
Analysts said Erdogan failed at the summit to achieve his aim, and his comments appear to indicate growing frustration in Turkey that Iran and Russia are not reining in Al Assad.
While Turkey has been one of the main supporters of Syrian rebels and called for Al Assad’s ouster, Ankara has until now worked closely with Al Assad’s allies Moscow and Tehran to find a political solution to the conflict.