Moscow To Host Meeting of Deputy FMs of Syria, Turkey, Iran, Russia

Moscow will host a meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iran in April, according to reports on Tuesday, citing Turkish and Iranian officials. The meeting is meant to build stronger relations between Turkey and Syria, following meetings last year between Syrian and Turkish officials after more than a decade of tension due to Syria’s long-running civil war. A previously planned meeting of the four countries’ deputy foreign ministers scheduled in March was postponed.

A senior Iranian foreign ministry official confirmed the meeting in Moscow in the first week of April, Reuters reported.

Ankara supported the Syrian opposition in the war against Syrian President Bashar Assad and occupied part of Syria’s territory in the north of the country. But in the last year both countries have shown signs of diplomatic openness to warmer relations, starting with the first official meeting in more than a decade between the defense ministers of Turkey and Syria held in December in Russia.

Assad has said that he will not meet with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan until Turkey makes moves to withdraw its military from northern Syria.