Today, in the Russian capital, Moscow, the “quartet” meeting of the assistant foreign ministers of Syria, Russia, Iran and Turkey begins, which will constitute the first political contact between Damascus and Ankara since the start of the war on Syria.
Hours before the start of the meeting, the first Syrian official confirmation of its participation came out, following Damascus had remained silent regarding confirming its participation. Interfering in Syrian internal affairs.
Follow-up diplomatic sources revealed to Al-Watan that today’s meeting of the Quartet can be described as preliminary, and relying on positive results is necessarily linked to the Turkish position regarding the principles announced by Damascus, in terms of providing guarantees of withdrawal from its lands and stopping support for the militants.
The sources indicated that reaching a joint statement that explicitly stipulates a Turkish commitment to the principles set by Damascus, foremost of which is ending the military presence on its territory, will mean the success of this meeting, because such a statement will constitute a clear text that all participating parties must abide by.
The sources pointed out that these principles that Damascus affirms are not conditions, but rather necessary guarantees to continue the next steps in the path of normalization with Ankara, stressing that the results of this meeting will be built upon in the coming period in terms of the possibility of developing the meeting to the level of foreign ministers.
Regarding the meeting between the defense ministers of the parties participating in the “Quartet”, which represents a path of its own, the sources indicated that the occurrence of this meeting is necessarily linked to the results of the “Quartet” meeting of the ministers’ assistants. They are linked to each other, and progress on the political track is linked to the security and military track, as well as stumbling over the political track is linked to the rest of the tracks, because at the end of all these meetings, a single track must be reached that brings them together in order to reach the final negotiation. the details”.
The sources stressed that the Syrian negotiator starts from a basic point, which is the national interest represented by the interest of the Syrian people, and does not concern him with the political investment of these meetings, which the other party is working on, especially the electoral investment in them.
An informed source in the Russian capital, Moscow, confirmed earlier yesterday that all the delegations participating in the quadripartite meeting had arrived. In a statement to TASS, the source said: “Consultations will take place (today) on Monday regarding the preparation for the meeting of foreign ministers, and all delegations have already arrived at Moscow».
The delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic is headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ayman Sousan, while the Turkish delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akjabar, while the Iranian delegation is headed by Ali Asghar Khaji, Senior Assistant to the Iranian Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs, and the Russian delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.
The delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic will hold today a bilateral consultation session with the Russian and Iranian sides, and tomorrow, Tuesday, it is scheduled to participate in the “quartet” meeting.
Earlier, Bogdanov expressed his hope that the Russian mediation would be directed at achieving a very important strategic goal, which is the normalization of “Syrian-Turkish” relations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian also indicated, following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, that the main objective of the meeting would be “convergence of views of Turkey and Syria.”
