The heads of Russian, Iranian and Turkish diplomacy, key players in the war in Syria, are in “close contact” to stabilize the situation in the face of the rebel offensive, according to Moscow, an ally of the Syrian regime.
“The foreign ministers of the three guarantor countries” of the Astana process, a negotiation format on Syria, “Russia, Iran and Turkey are in close contact”, indicated Wednesday the spokesperson for the Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, during her weekly briefing. “We hope that all states that have influence on the situation on the ground in Syria will use it in the interests of restoring security and stability in this country as soon as possible,” she said.
The Russian agency Ria Novosti announced, citing the Iranian embassy in Moscow, that Mohsen Qomi, advisor for international affairs to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, was in the Russian capital.
A coalition of rebels dominated by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda, launched a dazzling offensive in north-west Syria on November 27, seizing dozens of localities and a large part of Aleppo, the country’s second city, before continuing its progression towards the south. She arrived on Tuesday at the gates of Hama, the country’s fourth city.
With the military support of Russia, Iran and the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement Hezbollah, the regime recaptured a large part of the country in 2015 and in 2016 the entirety of Aleppo, the eastern part of which had been taken over. 2012 by the rebels. A ceasefire established in 2020, sponsored by Ankara and Moscow, had brought an uneasy calm to the northwest of the country.
Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011 with the brutal repression of pro-democracy protests by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, has left around half a million dead.
The heads of Russian, Iranian and Turkish diplomacy, key players in the war in Syria, are in “close contact” to stabilize the situation in the face of the rebel offensive, according to Moscow, an ally of the Syrian regime.
“The foreign ministers of the three guarantor countries” of the Astana process, a negotiation format on Syria, “the…
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