The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement today, Tuesday, that the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey discussed in Moscow preparations for holding a quadruple ministerial meeting.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said: “On April 3 and 4, consultations of the Quartet at the level of deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey were held in Moscow, at which preparations for the next meeting of the foreign ministers of these countries were discussed. and the participants in the consultations directly and frankly defined their approach and agreed to continue contacts.”
It was reported that the theme of the quadripartite meeting would be “the normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus.” Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey.
It is noteworthy that the meeting of the Deputy Foreign Minister was supposed to take place in March last year, but it was postponed.
According to the Special Representative of the President of Russia for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, the decision to postpone was made not at the request of Moscow, but because of the unwillingness of the parties to do so.
This time, delegations from all the participants in this formula arrived in the capital Moscow on Sunday to conduct “necessary consultations on the preparation of the meeting of foreign ministers.”
Last December, Russia hosted the first talks between Turkish and Syrian defense ministers in 11 years, as the Syrian crisis erupted in Syria in 2011, and Turkey, which had close relations with Damascus before the conflict, went over to the side of opponents of Syrian President Bashar. al-Assad.
However, the two sides have been in contact lately, with some media reporting a positive atmosphere indicating the possibility of a gradual normalization of relations between the two countries.
Source: TASS + RT