The Russian capital is preparing for the visit of President Bashar al-Assad to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and discuss strengthening bilateral relations and developments in the region, according to what was revealed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov yesterday.
Peskov indicated in a press statement to him yesterday that he will reveal the details of President Assad’s visit when there is an understanding about the visit, and he said in response to a question about the timing of the visit: “We will inform you at the appropriate time.”
And last Tuesday, Vedomosti newspaper quoted a diplomatic source close to President Putin’s administration as saying that President al-Assad will arrive in Russia on an official visit in mid-March.
Vedomosti made it clear that the two presidents will discuss bilateral relations, the situation in the region, especially the course of events in Ukraine, the issue of normalization between Damascus and Ankara, where Russia acts as a mediator in that file, and the current developments in the Syrian-Arab relations.
The newspaper pointed out that the issue of Moscow’s support for Damascus in the field of providing aid to overcome the effects of the earthquake that struck several areas in Syria on the sixth of last month will not be absent from the agenda of the talks, in addition to discussing Russian support for Syria in the issue of oil derivatives.
In the meantime, the file of normalization of relations between Damascus and Ankara continues to receive a large amount of media and political attention, especially after the successive official Turkish leaks about the date of the “quartet” meeting in Moscow, despite the absence of any official Syrian statement confirming the validity of all these leaks.
Yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed by phone a number of common issues, and he attended the quadripartite meeting as one of the main headlines in the talks.
For its part, the official Turkish Anatolia News Agency quoted Turkish diplomatic sources as saying that the Russian capital, Moscow, will host, on the 15th and 16th of March, a meeting on Syria between the deputy foreign ministers of Turkey, Russia, Iran and Syria.
According to the sources, Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçabar will head the Turkish delegation to the meeting, while the Russian President’s Special Representative to the Middle East and African countries, Mikhail Bogdanov, will head the Russian delegation, while Iran will be represented by the chief advisor for special political affairs to Foreign Minister Ali Asghar Khaji, while The Syrian side will be headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, Ayman Soussan.
Damascus maintained its official silence regarding announcing a specific date for holding the quadripartite meeting, while Al-Watan learned that the deliberations are still ongoing, ongoing and serious to reach a meeting, whose date may be decided at any moment if those deliberations reach positive results, and Damascus got what It wants guarantees from the Turkish side to announce a withdrawal schedule from Syrian territory and to stop supporting terrorist groups.