{"id":25940,"date":"2018-12-18T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25940"},"modified":"2018-12-18T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T00:22:09","slug":"un-syria-envoy-to-host-top-envoys-from-russia-turkey-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25940","title":{"rendered":"UN Syria envoy to host top envoys from Russia, Turkey, Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA:\u00a0In a potentially major policy shift, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday said Ankara will consider working with Syrian President Bashar Assad if he wins a free and fair election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAnkara had previously called on Assad to step down following the start of the uprising against him in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThere are suggestions that the U-turn may be due to Turkey\u2019s opposition to growing Kurdish influence on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey can\u2019t solve the (Kurdish) Democratic Union Party (PYD) problem with the US alone,\u201d said Timur Akhmetov, a researcher at the Russian International Affairs Council. \u201cA start of dialogue with Assad \u2026 seems like a logical step.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nTurkey will also be driven by ambitions to install friendly political figures in the Syrian government, Akhmetov added.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cRenewed relations between Turkey and Syria will contribute to reconstruction of (Syrian) cities with Turkish companies and bilateral trade,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nA UN-led plan to draft reforms to Syria\u2019s constitution, laying the ground for fresh elections, is expected to be established within weeks.<\/p>\n

\nUnder the plan, the Syrian regime will choose 50 members of the Constitutional Committee, with Turkey proposing 50 Syrian opposition members and the UN nominating a further 50 people \u2014 comprising academics, experts and civil society members \u2014 to oversee the reforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nLast week, Ankara said it will launch within days a military campaign east of the Euphrates River against the Syrian-Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), whose political wing is the PYD.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAnkara may intend that Russia rhetorically supports such a campaign in exchange for a positive message about Assad\u2019s theoretical chances of staying in power,\u201d said Akhmetov.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nBut mistrust between Ankara and Damascus remains a significant hurdle to smoother diplomatic relations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nLast month, Syria\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad demanded that Turkish \u201coccupation\u201d forces leave the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nHe said Damascus would not count on Turkish assurances because Ankara\u2019s intentions are \u201ccolonial\u201d and \u201cexpansionist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAron Lund, a Syria analyst at the Century Foundation, said he does not think Turkey\u2019s expressed willingness to work with Assad constitutes a big change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat Cavusoglu seems to be saying is that Syria should have a democratic election, as is called for in UN Security Council resolution 2254, and that the winner \u2014 even if it\u2019s Assad \u2014 could be considered legitimate by Turkey,\u201d he told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nCavusoglu simply responded to a hypothetical question, Lund said, adding: \u201cFor now, Turkey seems content to continue along the current course of action, working with Russia to secure its interests in Syria and relaying messages to Damascus through Moscow and Tehran.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAnkara still refuses to talk directly to Damascus to seek an end to the conflict in Syria. Sinan Hatahet of Al-Sharq Forum in Istanbul said Turkey\u2019s stance is conditional upon elections in Syria.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cPreviously, Turkish officials made it clear that they don\u2019t believe that the regime would let elections happen,\u201d he told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt\u2019s still difficult to believe there will be any reconciliation between the parties for now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA:\u00a0In a potentially major policy shift, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday said Ankara will consider working with Syrian President Bashar Assad if he wins a free and fair election.\u00a0 Ankara had previously called on Assad to step down following the start of the uprising against him in 2011.\u00a0 There are suggestions that the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25940","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\/25940","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=25940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}