DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Russian Ambassador to Damascus Alexander Efimov announced in an interview with the al-Watan newspaper that the meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, which was scheduled for Monday, has been postponed to early May.
“Contacts and consultations continue between the parties to achieve positive results on this issue,” he said.
The representatives of the four countries agreed to continue consultations on preparing the meeting between their top diplomats, as previously reported by a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
“On April 3-4, 2023, four-party consultations at the level of the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria, and Turkey were held in Moscow. The parties discussed the issues related to the preparations for a meeting between foreign ministers, and each country expressed its stance and opinions in a transparent and open way. In this context, the parties agreed on continuing consultations,” the source emphasized.
The defense ministers of Russia, Syria, and Turkey held consultations in Moscow on December 28, 2022, as part of efforts to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus. The participants reached an agreement to create a trilateral commission. A meeting between the three countries’ top diplomats is expected to follow the consultations to discuss the possibility of talks between Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Bashar Assad of Syria. Later, Iran joined the consultations at the level of foreign ministries.
On December 15, 2022, Erdogan suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin host a trilateral meeting involving the Syrian president, adding that the summit should be preceded by a meeting between officials from intelligence agencies, defense, and foreign ministries.