Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said that plans were underway for a second gathering of Syrian representatives to devise a political solution to the bloody conflict in the Middle Eastern nation.
“We have spoken about Syria. We will gather again as soon as possible in Sochi,” Erdogan said on Monday, referring to the Russian Black Sea resort that hosted the first Syrian National Dialogue Congress, Efe news reported.
“Naturally, the focus was made on the situation in the Middle East settlement that has deteriorated dramatically and on the Syrian affairs where our countries are closely cooperating,” Putin said during a joint press conference with Erdogan in Ankara.
The Russian President arrived here after brief stops earlier Monday in Damascus and Cairo.
“We are conducting joint work to prepare and convene the Syrian National Dialogue Congress at the beginning of the next year. It is a secret to no one that I spoke about it with President [Bashar] Al Assad during my today’s visit to Syria,” Putin said.
He recalled that convening a conference of Syrian leaders was a commitment he, Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made when they met on November 22 in Sochi.
Putin is working with Turkey and Iran to enforce ceasefire zones in Syria as he seeks to revive long-stalled efforts to reach a peace settlement. He’s also reached out to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states to persuade opposition groups to join Russian-hosted peace talks with Al Assad. While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reaffirmed in October that “we do not believe there is a future for the Al Assad regime and the Al Assad family,” the US is no longer demanding that he step down as a precondition for talks.
Although Putin said most of Russia’s forces will leave Syria, he said his country will maintain the airbase and a naval port at Tartus. “If the terrorists rear their head again, we’ll strike them in a way they’ve never seen before,” he said in comments broadcast on Russian state television.
It’s not the first time he’s announced Russia’s withdrawal from Syria. Putin ordered a pullback of forces in March 2016, saying the military campaign had created “conditions for the start” of peace talks, only to resume large-scale operations in support of Syrian troops during the siege of Aleppo.