Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu confirmed that the Russian side requested the postponement of the four-way meeting between Turkey, Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime’s deputy foreign ministers, which was planned to take place on March 15-16.
Attributing the postponement of the meeting to Russia’s inability to prepare, Çavuşoğlu said, “But the Syrian regime was there and they may have taken a joint decision, they said, we’ll do it later, we agreed, we’re going. Waiting for Moscow to set the meeting date, because they are the ones who proposed the arrangement and they are the ones who will host it.”
Çavuşoğlu stated that Turkey started negotiations with the Syrian regime at the level of the Ministry of Defense, and that a meeting was planned at the level of deputy foreign ministers, but was postponed.
I hope it will be done in the coming days,” he said.
In a related context, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov confirmed that no agreement has been reached between Turkey and the Syrian regime on holding a four-way meeting.
“We are talking about four-way consultations at the level of deputy ministers, and their purpose is to prepare a meeting of foreign ministers based on the fact that the sooner the better,” said Bogdanov.
Nothing definite has yet been agreed upon. There is a specific work schedule for our Syrian, Turkish and Iranian colleagues, but there is no specific date and we continue to coordinate,” he said.
It is noteworthy that the Syrian regime, before starting political negotiations with Turkey, withdrew its forces from northern Syria, stopped its support to the opposition and returned the situation to the way it was before 2011.
