Risk of collapse for the “Sochi Deal” while Astana partners continue to work on collaborative solutions

In a bid to continue coordination for finding a lasting solution to the Syrian Crisis, top diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey met yesterday and discussed the latest developments in the war-torn country. This is while, the terrorist groups’ reluctance to stay committed to the Sochi deal keeps the situation in Syria’s Idlib fragile.

کد خبر: ۸۴۵۷۳۴

تاریخ: ۰۲ آبان ۱۳۹۷ - ۱۴:۴۸

Tabnak – In a bid to continue coordination for finding a lasting solution to the Syrian Crisis, top diplomats from Iran, Russia and Turkey met yesterday and discussed the latest developments in the war-torn country. This is while, the terrorist groups’ reluctance to stay committed to the Sochi deal keeps the situation in Syria’s Idlib fragile.

Senior diplomats of Iran, Russia, and Turkey, which act as guarantors of an all-Syria ceasefire, hold consultations in Moscow amid efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in the Arab country.

The meeting was held on Tuesday within the Astana format. The Kazakh capital has been hosting talks since January 2017 between the Syrian government and opposition, with the guarantor states in attendance as mediators.

“We aim to use the consultations in this format to ‘synchronize our watches’ and to consider the situation on the ground and around Syria,” said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. The discussions are meant to help “continue our successful cooperation in the Astana format, including organization,” he added.

Iranian Foreign Minister’s Special Assistant for Political Affairs, Hossein Jaberi Ansari, has been representing Iran in both the Astana talks and the relevant consultations.

Participants in the Moscow gathering decided that the next top-level meeting in the format would take place in Astana in November.

Against the backdrop of the tripartite talks in Moscow, the terrorist groups in north-western Syria continue their hostile acts against the Syrian army, despite the latest agreement between Ankara and Moscow to help deescalate the situation in the area.

In this vein, it’s reported that terrorists who refused to leave the demilitarized zone in Northern and Northwestern Syria continued to target the Syrian army troops in Hama and Aleppo province on Tuesday a week after the deadline called by the Sochi Agreement.

Syria's state-run al-Watan paper reported that the army units repelled terrorists attack on a road connecting Khirbet al-Naqous to al-Mashari'a in Western Hama, inflicting heavy casualties on them.

It further said that the army's artillery units targeted the movements of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham in Wadi al-Dorat region, in the village of Abu Ra'eidah in Northern Hama and in the village of al-Hawash in Western Hama, inflicting major losses on the terrorists.

Some sources also report that the Syrian Army plans to deploy more heavy arms in the demilitarized zone to pave the ground for a large-scale operation against terrorists in case they insist on remaining in the region. The army detected terrorists' bases and positions, in which heavy weapons are deployed in Idlib province.

Observers believe that Syrian Army is likely to conduct military operation in Northern and Northwestern parts of the country as terrorist groups have showed no intention to leave the demilitarized zone.