Istanbul
\nThe leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany on Saturday called for a political solution to Syria\u2019s devastating seven-year civil war and a lasting ceasefire in the last major rebel-held bastion of Idlib.<\/p>\n
A joint statement adopted at the end of a major summit in Istanbul said the countries were committed to working \u201ctogether in order to create conditions for peace and stability in Syria\u201d.
\nIt also \u201cstressed the importance of a lasting ceasefire\u201d in Idlib, while hailing \u201cprogress\u201d following a deal last month between Syrian-regime supporter Russia and rebel-backer Turkey to create a buffer zone around the northwestern province.<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke for several hours with Russia\u2019s Vladimir Putin, France\u2019s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the Syrian conflict, in which more than 360,000 people have been killed since 2011.
\nTheir statement, read by Erdogan, called for a committee to be established to draft Syria\u2019s post-war constitution before the end of the year, \u201cpaving the way for free and fair elections\u201d in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n
It also said there was \u201cthe need to ensure humanitarian organisations\u2019 rapid, safe and unhindered access throughout Syria and immediate humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need\u201d.<\/p>\n
The talks came after a week of escalating violence in Idlib culminated in Syrian regime artillery fire killing seven civilians on Friday, the highest death toll there since the fragile ceasefire began last month.<\/p>\n
Following the joint news conference in Istanbul, the leaders spoke separately, with Macron urging Russia to pressure the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to bring about a \u201cstable and lasting ceasefire in Idlib\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe rely on Russia to exercise very clear pressure on the regime which depends on it for survival,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
However Putin warned that if \u201cradicals\u201d were to \u201claunch armed provocations from the Idlib zone, Russia reserves the right to give active assistance to the Syrian government in liquidating this source of terrorist threat\u201d.<\/p>\n
Merkel, meanwhile, said the leaders \u201chave the duty to prevent another humanitarian disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is to end two wars: The war against terror and the war of the regime against large parts of its own population,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA solution cannot happen through military means but only through political negotiations under the leadership of the United Nations.\u201d A rival United Nations plan for a committee to write the constitution ran aground this week, with UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura, who attended the summit, saying Damascus rejected the UN having a role in the selection process.<\/p>\n
The summit also addressed the plight of the millions displaced by the grinding conflict, saying that conditions needed to be created \u201cthroughout the country for the safe and voluntary return of refugees\u201d.<\/p>\n
However whether or not those forced to flee the country would be allowed to vote in a future election was left for the separate press conferences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must advance with the political process at the end of which there must be free elections open to all Syrians\u2014including those in the diaspora,\u201d Merkel said.<\/p>\n
Erdogan, a vocal opponent of Assad, agreed, saying that Syrians \u201cinside and outside\u201d the country must decide the president\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n
Aid groups have warned that a Syrian government military offensive in Idlib, home to three million people, could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the seven-year war.<\/p>\n
With an assault by government troops seeming imminent, Moscow and Ankara agreed on September 17 to create a 15-20 kilometre-wide demilitarised zone ringing Idlib as Turkey sought to avoid an attack leading to a further influx of people across its border.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Syria\u2019s UN envoy Bashar Jaafari maintained that the buffer zone is temporary and that Idlib would eventually revert to government control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Istanbul The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany on Saturday called for a political solution to Syria\u2019s devastating seven-year civil war and a lasting ceasefire in the last major rebel-held bastion of Idlib. A joint statement adopted at the end of a major summit in Istanbul said the countries were committed to working \u201ctogether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45661,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45659\/revisions\/45661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}