{"id":15287,"date":"2023-05-12T02:30:39","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T00:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=15287"},"modified":"2023-05-12T02:30:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T00:30:47","slug":"foreign-ministers-of-russia-turkey-syria-and-iran-meet-in-moscow-for-high-level-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/foreign-ministers-of-russia-turkey-syria-and-iran-meet-in-moscow-for-high-level-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iran meet in Moscow for high-level talks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>After reinstating its role in the Arab League, Bashar Al Assad\u2019s Syrian administration is moving to mend relations with other regional stakeholders. The top diplomats of Turkey, Russia, Syria, and Iran met in Moscow on May 10, 2023, to discuss a road map for normalizing ties between Damascus and Ankara.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This&nbsp;was the first meeting between a Turkish and Syrian foreign minister since 2011 &#8211; the year the country descended into a civil war after a crackdown on protestors. Since then, the civil unrest that resulted in the death of nearly half a million people and displaced another 23 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Moscow, Syria\u2019s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad met with Turkey\u2019s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in a meeting arranged by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Russia has been pushing Ankara and Damascus to normalize relations after years of animosity. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian was also present during the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Syria\u2019s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad was quoted as saying that \u201cdespite all the negatives of the past years, there is an opportunity\u201d for Damascus and Ankara to work together. During the meeting, Mekdad put forward his country\u2019s demand to end the presence of foreign militaries, including Turkey\u2019s, from Syria. \u201cWithout progress in this matter, we will remain stagnant and will not reach any real results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Quadrilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Syria kicks off in Moscow. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xiJKQvDqCL\">pic.twitter.com\/xiJKQvDqCL<\/a><\/p>\u2014 IRNA News Agency (@IrnaEnglish) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/IrnaEnglish\/status\/1656243521932673027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 10, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>Russia\u2019s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the meeting was held in a \u201cpositive and constructive atmosphere.\u201d He added that his counterparts have agreed to develop a roadmap to advance Turkey-Syria ties. During his opening remarks at the meeting, Lavrov said that Moscow would help Syria and Turkey, \u201cnot only in consolidating politically the progress that has been made but also in determining general guidelines for further movement\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the official statement released by the Russian foreign ministry, &#8220;the ministers noted a positive and constructive atmosphere of the exchange of views and agreed to maintain high-level contacts and four-way technical negotiations&#8221;.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stressed that \u201ccooperation in the fight against terrorism\u201d must be established between Damascus and Ankara. He also pointed out that Syria should \u201cestablish the basis for the return of Syrians.\u201d Turkey has been hosting one of the largest numbers of Syrian refugees who fled the country as a result of decade-long civil unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Turkey-Syria-Iran.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Turkey-Syria-Iran.jpg?resize=849%2C531&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15293\" width=\"849\" height=\"531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Turkey-Syria-Iran.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Turkey-Syria-Iran.jpg?resize=300%2C188&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Turkey-Syria-Iran.jpg?resize=768%2C480&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 849px) 100vw, 849px\" \/><\/a><figcaption><em><sup>A view of the meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Iran in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Image Credit: Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Moscow has been trying to bridge the relations between the two countries on the grounds that both Turkey and Syria see Washington-backed Kurdish rebel groups as a common enemy in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In December 2022, Moscow hosted a trilateral meeting between the defense chiefs of Russia, Syria, and Turkey to discuss the issues related to the Syrian war. Turkey\u2019s backing has played a vital role in sustaining Syrian rebels in their last major territorial foothold in the northwest after President al-Assad\u2019s forces defeated the fighters across the rest of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In previous meetings, Russia has promised to establish a buffer zone between the Turkish border and Syria\u2019s People\u2019s Defense Unit or YPG forces. The buffer zone would be controlled by the Syrian army and Russian military police. As a result of the recent four-way meeting, deputy foreign ministers from all sides have been tasked to establish contacts in order to finalize the details of the buffer zone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The top diplomats of Turkey, Russia, Syria, and Iran met in Moscow on May 10, 2023,  to discuss a road map for normalizing ties between Damascus and Ankara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,44,1],"tags":[317,75,210,30,316,356,71,20,13,11,82,540],"class_list":["post-15287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-middle-east","category-news","tag-arab","tag-conflict","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-iran","tag-kurdish","tag-middle-east","tag-politics","tag-russia","tag-syria","tag-terrorism","tag-turkey","tag-turkiye"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Russia-Iran-Turkey-Syria.jpeg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-3Yz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15287"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15295,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287\/revisions\/15295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}