ISTANBUL, Turkey: Turkey confirmed Friday that it would meet Russian and Iranian foreign ministers in Qatar on Saturday for talks on the current escalating in Syria.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan “will meet with the Russian and Iranian ministers… for a meeting under the Astana process” on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, a foreign ministry source said as quoted by AFP.
The Astana process involving the three countries was launched by Kazakhstan in 2017 in a bid to find a political solution to the war in Syria, which has flared again after a lightning offensive by insurgents over the past week.
Iranian state media had reported earlier that a meeting was expected on the forum’s sidelines between Turkey, Iran and Russia.
Qatar is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting in Syria to restore peace.
Turkey shares a border of more than 900 kilometres (560 miles) with Syria and currently is home to around three million Syrian refugees.
The four-way talks will take place in Doha on December 7 and 8, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.
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Last week, insurgent armed groups launched a surprise offensive and took control of Aleppo city, home to 2 million people.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that thousands of Homs residents started fleeing overnight towards the western coast as the insurgents advanced. Armed groups are pushing their offensive further south towards Damascus, according to a war monitor.
Homs is 46km (29 miles) south of Hama, which insurgents captured on Thursday, days after seizing the country’s prized second city Aleppo from government forces.
Meanwhile, Israel launched air attacks on two border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, hitting the Syrian side of the Arida and Jousiyeh crossings.
Lebanon’s Transport Minister Ali Hamieh told Reuters they were important access routes to the Homs governorate.
The border attacks were confirmed by Syrian state news agency SANA and the Israeli military. The army claimed to have hit weapons transfer hubs and infrastructure used by Hezbollah. – Agencies
