Iran, Russia, Turkey Agree on All Issues in Antalya: Lavrov
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey on Sunday agreed on all key issues at Syria peace talks in Antalya, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We have gathered to discuss certain issues related to preparations for the summit of the three countries’ president, which is due in Sochi on November 22," Lavrov told reporters after a trilateral meeting of Iran, Russia and Turkey on the Syrian crisis, the Tass news agency reported.
"The work was very useful, we have reached agreement on all the key issues,” he added.
"We shall report to our presidents our views on how to move forward, how to improve the process, which we call the Astana process and which should offer most favorable conditions to have the Geneva process at last gain some effective instruments to settle the tasks, outlined in the UN Security Council’s Resolution 2254," the Russian minister said.
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu convened on Sunday in the southwestern Turkish city of Antalya to discuss the results of expert-level talk on the settlement of Syria crisis.
Iran, Russia and Turkey have so far held seven rounds of peace talks in Kazakhstan to help end the conflict in Syria. The fourth round of those talks in May produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria, sharply reducing fighting in the country.
Diplomatic efforts to end fighting in Syria gained momentum in 2017 with the announcement of a ceasefire in the Arab country in early January.
According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.
