Middle East
Turkish foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu on April, 7 2023 in Ankara. Photo: Adem ALTAN/AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that the quadripartite meeting with Iran, Syria and Russia is planned for May.
Speaking in an interview broadcasted by a pro-government television channel, Cavuoglu said that a detailed roadmap has been drawn, adding that the meetings between the defense ministers and between intelligence envoys were a part of said roadmap.
“In the coming period, a quadripartite meeting, on the level of foreign ministers is planned,” said the Turkish foreign minister, adding that Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, also discussed this with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Ankara earlier this month.
“It [the meeting] will take place around the start of May, according the preliminary information we got from Russia, Moscow will host the meeting,” he added.
The meeting is an attempt to revive the stagnated political situation according to Cavusoglu, citing that Astana format and other international initiatives did not come to fruition.
The quadripartite meeting between Russia, Turkey and Iran marks a significant milestone towards normalization of ties between Ankara and Damascus, whose relations severed 12 years ago at the start of the Syrian antigovernment protests.
Turkey and Syria enjoyed strong relations until civil war broke out with Ankara entering the conflict by backing the rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The meeting was initially set to be tripartite, but Iran was added to the discussions after expressing the country’s desire to be a part of the conversation.
Despite efforts to mend ties, a long road remains ahead. Assad previously said that a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not in sight until Turkey’s “illegal occupation” of parts of Syria ended.
The defence ministers of Turkey, Syria and Russia met in Moscow in December for the first time since the start of the war in Syria in 2011, marking the highest level of talks to date.
Updated at 11:34 am
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