Iran, Russia, Turkey leaders to hold Syria summit next week

ANKARA: Russian President Vladimir Putin will next week host Turkish and Iranian counterparts Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani for summit talks on Syria, officials from Turkey and Russia said.
With the violence in Syria diminishing but still no political solution in sight, the three presidents will meet at Putin’s official residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on November 22. The meeting comes as Ankara, Moscow and Tehran cooperate with increasing intensity on ending the more than six-year civil war in Syria. They are sponsoring peace talks in Kazakh capital Astana and also implementing a plan for de-escalation zones in key flashpoint areas of Syria. Turkey’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that the three leaders would discuss progress in reducing the violence in Syria and ensuring humanitarian aid goes to those in need. Describing Iran, Russia and Turkey as the three “guarantor” countries, he said the talks would look at what they could do for a lasting political solution in Syria. Confirming the summit, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was just these three countries who were the “guarantors of the process of political settlement and stability and security that we see now in Syria”.