Russia eyeing 'possible' multilateral talks on Syria

MOSCOW

Russia is gearing up for a multilateral meeting on Syria with Iran and Turkey, the Kremlin spokesman said Tuesday.

When asked about a possible meeting between Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia's President Vladimir Putin on March 5, Dmitry Peskov said they are eyeing another format.

"Now we are not talking about bilateral contacts as such, but we are working on the possibility of a meeting in a multilateral format,” he said.

Peskov went on to say that that the multilateral format suggests the participation of Iran along with Russia and Turkey.

In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn northwestern Syrian province of Idlib a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

However, the Syrian regime and its allies, including the Iranian-backed forces, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the territory.

Turkey has called for the cease-fire to be followed, and warned that if the attacks do not stop, it will take action.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to about 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by the regime forces.