Terrorists should not run syria says assad ally russia in meeting with iran turkiye

Terrorists should not run syria says assad ally russia in meeting with iran turkiye

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that Syria must not be allowed to fall into the hands of a “terrorist group” as Islamist-led rebels advance on President Bashar al-Assad’s seat of power.

Mr. Lavrov spoke after talks in the Gulf state of Qatar on Saturday with fellow Assad-ally Iran and Opposition supporter Turkiye aimed at preventing Syria from collapsing into chaos after the lightning rebel advances of recent days.

“It’s inadmissible to allow the terrorist group to take control of territory in violation of agreements,” Mr. Lavrov said, citing a 2015 UN Security Council Resolution which he said “strongly reiterated sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of the Syrian Arab Republic”.

The Russian Minister was alluding to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group which has headed the assault and is rooted in the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. HTS has sought to soften its image in recent years but remains proscribed as a “terrorist organisation” by Western governments.

Mr. Lavrov and Iran’s Abbas Araghchi met with Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, an annual gathering for political dialogue.

Mr. Araghchi said the three Ministers agreed on the need to launch “political dialogue between the Syrian government and legitimate opposition groups”. The three countries have been partners since 2017 in the Astana process seeking to end the civil war that has persisted in Syria since 2011.

Despite repeated violations, a 2020 ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkiye had largely frozen the conflict for several years but it was blown apart by the shock offensive the rebels launched late last month.

Moscow and Tehran have offered military support to help Mr. Assad’s forces hold off the rebels.

Ankara backs some of the rebel groups involved in the offensive and looks favourably on its success so far.

Surprise situation

However, the scale of the collapse of Mr. Assad’s forces has taken observers by surprise with conflicting reports about how close the rebels have come to Mr. Assad’s seat of power in Damascus.

Qatar — which gave early support to the rebels after Mr. Assad’s government crushed a peaceful uprising in 2011 — remains a fierce critic of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.

‘Assad’s failure’

Speaking at the same event in Doha, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said Mr. Assad had failed to “seize these opportunities” during a period of calm in the country’s war both “on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people”.

Ahead of the three-way talks, Mr. Araghchi said he had “very frank and direct” bilateral meetings with his Turkish counterpart and the ruler of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Mr. Assad earlier this week to “reconcile with his people”. On Friday he said he hoped the rebel advance would “continue without incident”.