{"id":14237,"date":"2018-09-07T18:24:03","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T18:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14237"},"modified":"2018-09-07T18:24:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T18:24:03","slug":"idlib-turkeys-ceasefire-call-rejected-by-russia-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=14237","title":{"rendered":"Idlib: Turkey’s ceasefire call rejected by Russia, Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey have been unable to find common ground at a high-stakes summit on the fate of Syria’s last rebel stronghold, where the Syrian government is threatening a large-scale military offensive.<\/p>\n

Iran’s President\u00a0Hassan Rouhani<\/a>\u00a0on Friday hosted his Russian and Turkish counterparts –\u00a0<\/span>Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u00a0and Recep Tayyip Erdogan<\/a>\u00a0– amid growing international warnings over a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, a province hosting more than three million people, half of whom are internally displaced.<\/p>\n

Iran and Russia are major allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs certain rebel groups, including some in Idlib, who are seeking his removal.<\/p>\n

At the three-way summit in Iran’s capital, Tehran, Erdogan warned of a “bloodbath” in the event of an all-out assault on the northwestern province and called\u00a0for a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

“If we can announce a ceasefire today here, I believe this will be one of the most important steps of this summit,” the Turkish president said.<\/p>\n

“An attack on Idlib will result in disaster, massacre and a very big humanitarian tragedy,” added Erdogan, whose country\u00a0has already taken in more than three million Syrian refugees and fears a new influx that could overwhelm its now-closed southern border with Idlib.<\/span><\/p>\n

But his proposal for a ceasefire was rejected by Putin, whose decision three years ago to intervene in Syria’s war tilted the odds in al-Assad’s favour.<\/p>\n

In rejecting the ceasefire and stating what he expected the imminent offensive\u00a0to accomplish, Putin said:\u00a0<\/span>“We consider it unacceptable when, under the pretext of protecting the civilian population, they want to withdraw terrorists from being under attack, as well as inflict damage on Syrian government troops”.<\/p>\n

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi said the summit laid bare the countries’ divergence “on what to do next with regards to Idlib \u2026 [and] on what promises to be the final large-scale battle in Syria and now, a seemingly inevitable battle for Idlib”.<\/p>\n

‘No military solution’<\/h2>\n

However, in a joint statement, Iran, Russia<\/a> and Turkey reiterated that the Syria crisis<\/a> can only reach a final resolution through a “negotiated political process”, not military means.<\/p>\n

The statement also called for the creation of safe conditions so those displaced by the seven-year conflict can return.<\/p>\n

It added that the three countries had discussed “the situation in (the) Idlib de-escalation area and decided to address it in line with … the spirit of cooperation that characterised the Astana format”.<\/p>\n

The three countries are guarantors of the Astana process<\/a>, a track of talks on Syria’s civil war launched after Russia’s game-changing 2015 military intervention, which led to the creation of de-escalation zones throughout the country.<\/p>\n

The talks in Tehran were held as\u00a0Russian and Syrian fighter jets continued bombing<\/a> various areas of southern Idlib province, activists said on Friday.<\/p>\n

At least four people were killed and seven wounded in the air raids, local activists and rescue workers said.<\/p>\n

‘Safe corridors’<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations envoy for Syria reiterated on Friday that there were “all the ingredients for a perfect storm” in Idlib, as he\u00a0called for the establishment of UN-monitored evacuation corridors for civilians to voluntarily leave the war zone.<\/p>\n

“People should be granted safe passage to places of their own choosing if they want to leave temporarily. We must allow the opening of a sufficient number of protected voluntary evacuation routes for civilians in any direction,” he told the Security Council.<\/p>\n

De Mistura proposed that a deadline be set for all fighters – in particular, the Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly known as al-Nusra Front)\u00a0– to move away from populated areas and that no military attacks be launched during the pullback.<\/p>\n

“This would apply in particular for al-Nusra, who should be notified by the guarantors, in particular Turkey, which still has the capacity to send messages,” he said.<\/p>\n

Separately, eight aid agencies have urged world leaders to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Idlib, calling for a diplomatic solution that can protect civilians and aid workers while allowing humanitarian groups to access the overcrowded province and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

The agencies, including CARE, Mercy Corps and the International Rescue Committee, said the “most vulnerable” are likely to pay the heaviest price in case of an offensive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey have been unable to find common ground at a high-stakes summit on the fate of Syria’s last rebel stronghold, where the Syrian government is threatening a large-scale military offensive. Iran’s President\u00a0Hassan Rouhani\u00a0on Friday hosted his Russian and Turkish counterparts –\u00a0Vladimir Putin\u00a0and Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u00a0– amid growing international warnings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":14238,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}