Turkish, Russian foreign ministers discuss Syria

Turkey’s foreign minister spoke via telephone with his Russian counterpart on Monday and discussed recent developments in Syria, according to a diplomatic source on Monday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu and Sergey Lavrov discussed matters pertaining to Syria’s northwestern Idlib, Astana peace process and establishment of Syrian constitutional committee, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

On Sunday Turkish Foreign Minister also discussed the constitutional committee with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif over the phone, according to the diplomatic sources.

The Astana peace process backed by three guarantor states, Iran, Russia and Turkey, ensured cease-fire and a de-escalation zone in Idlib and contributed to the revival of Geneva negotiations, which began in June 2012 under the supervision of the UN.

Following a meeting on Sept. 17, 2018 in the Russian city of Sochi between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the two sides agreed to set up a demilitarised zone in Syria’s Idlib province.

According to the deal, Russia and Turkey agreed to set up a 15-20 kilometres demilitarised zone along the contact line between Syrian regime troops and the armed opposition in which the control of the zone will be exercised by mobile patrol groups of Turkish units and units of Russian military police.

The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million others displaced, according to UN officials.