{"id":20127,"date":"2018-10-28T09:24:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-28T09:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20127"},"modified":"2018-10-28T09:24:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-28T09:24:28","slug":"four-nation-syria-summit-calls-for-lasting-idlib-cease-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=20127","title":{"rendered":"Four-nation Syria summit calls for lasting Idlib cease-fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nISTANBUL: 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 cease-fire 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 in order to create conditions for peace and stability in Syria.\u201d
It also \u201cstressed the importance of a lasting cease-fire\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.
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.
Their 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.
It also said there was \u201cthe need to ensure humanitarian organizations\u2019 rapid, safe and unhindered access throughout Syria and immediate humanitarian assistance to reach all people in need.\u201d
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 cease-fire began last month.
Following the joint news conference in Istanbul, the leaders spoke separately, with Macron urging Russia to pressure the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad to bring about a \u201cstable and lasting cease-fire in Idlib.\u201d
\u201cWe rely on Russia to exercise very clear pressure on the regime which depends on it for survival,\u201d he said.
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
Merkel, meanwhile, said the leaders \u201chave the duty to prevent another humanitarian disaster.\u201d
\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.
\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.
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
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.
\u201cWe must advance with the political process at the end of which there must be free elections open to all Syrians -\u2013 including those in the diaspora,\u201d Merkel said.
Erdogan, a vocal opponent of Assad, agreed, saying that Syrians \u201cinside and outside\u201d the country must decide the president\u2019s fate.
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.
With an assault by government troops seeming imminent, Moscow and Ankara agreed on September 17 to create a 15-20 kilometer-wide demilitarised zone ringing Idlib as Turkey sought to avoid an attack leading to a further influx of people across its border.
On Friday, Syria\u2019s UN envoy Bashar Jaafari maintained that the buffer zone is temporary and that Idlib would eventually revert to government control.
Turkey and Russia have held several talks with Iran on the Syrian conflict in efforts that have often been greeted with suspicion in the West, but Saturday\u2019s summit was the first to include the EU\u2019s two most significant national leaders.
Syria\u2019s opposition, which has previously described Russia\u2019s military intervention in 2015 as an occupation, on Friday said it welcomed dialogue with Moscow.
However US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told a security conference in Bahrain that Russia was no replacement for the United States.
\u201cRussia\u2019s presence in the region cannot replace the longstanding, enduring, and transparent US commitment to the Middle East,\u201d Mattis said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\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 cease-fire 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 in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":20128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20127","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\/20127","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=20127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}