Iranian, Turkish, Russian foreign ministers to meet in Moscow

The foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran will meet in Moscow on Saturday to discuss co-operation within the framework of the Astana mechanism.

According to a statement issued by the Turkish foreign ministry, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and Iran's Javad Zarif, “will focus on all aspects of the co-operation carried out within the framework of the Astana mechanism and elaborate on the steps that could be taken from now on.”

The Astana peace talks were launched on January 23-24, 2017, with the aim of putting an end to violence and improving the humanitarian situation in war-torn Syria.

Kazakhstan has hosted eight meetings attended by representatives from the guarantor states – Turkey, Russia and Iran – that brokered a ceasefire in Syria in December 2016, leading to the Astana peace talks running parallel to the UN-sponsored Geneva talks on ending the war.

The conflict in Syria, which has drawn in regional players, erupted in 2011 when the regime of Bashar al Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests that were part of the regional Arab uprisings.

Since then, the country has been torn apart, with millions displaced internally, millions made refugees, and hundreds of thousands killed.