Russia is still working with relevant parties to schedule a quadrilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Damascus, Ankara, Moscow and Tehran, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Tuesday, reported Reuters.
“We haven’t agreed on anything yet, so there’s nothing to postpone,” Bogdanov told RIA news, cited Reuters.
“We proceed from the fact that it should take place the sooner the better. But our colleagues, the Syrians, the Turks, and the Iranians have their work plans and timetables. While there is no specific date, we will continue to coordinate,” Russia’s foreign minister said.
Bogdanov’s statement came after a source in the Turkish media told Reuters last week that a scheduled meeting between the foreign ministers of four countries was postponed to an unspecified date.
After an almost 12-year break in once close relations, Syria and Turkey engaged in a Russia-brokered reconciliation talks last year, with the highest level of meetings so far held by the three countries’ defence ministers and intelligence chiefs in December. Moscow announced last month that Tehran will also join future talks.
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that a meeting among deputy prime ministers of four countries would be held last week, however the meeting did not take place.
Syrian legislator Ali Odeh al-Jadan said on Sunday that the Damascus government had sent Turkey a memorandum detailing its conditions for continuing the Russian-brokered reconciliation negotiations and the fate of future talks between two neighbours had depended on Ankara’s response.
The Bashar Assad government in Damascus demands that, in order to reinstate ties between Turkey and Syria, Ankara withdraw from areas it invaded in Syria’s north and end its support to Syrian rebel factions.