MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Participants in the four-lateral summit on Syria in Istanbul (Russia, Germany, Turkey and France) managed to hold their grounds on Syrian settlement, a Russian analyst told TASS on Sunday, adding that in general terms the summit could be seen as a step "towards attempts to find ways out of the Syrian crisis."
According to Boris Dolgov, a senior research fellow at the Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Oriental Studies, participants repeated their plans and stances concerning Syria. "In case the agreements between Moscow and Ankara on the Idlib de-escalation zone are not observed, Russia has reserved the right to help Syrian government troops," Turkey "once again reiterated its position concerning continuation of combat operations against Kurdish armed groups Ankara considers as terrorist," while French President Emmanuel Macron "actually confirmed his support to opposition forces," he said.
"The German leader refrained from traditional statements against [Syrian President] Bashar Assad. Germany did not demand his resignation openly," Dolgov went on to say. "But I don’t think we can speak about any changes in Germany’s position. The position of German Chancellor Angela Merkel has remained unchanged."
Nevertheless, in his words, the Istanbul summit did yield certain positive results as the four leaders finally met to speak about the Syrian settlement. "I think it will be a long way and the four-party summit in Istanbul was just a step towards final settlement," he added.
Further development of the situation in Syria will depend to a larger extent on the implementation of the Russian-Turkish agreements on Idlib, the expert said, adding that Moscow has been pointing that the agreements have certain timeframes and called on Ankara to ensure withdrawal of extremist forces from the demilitarized zone.
Another major factor, in his words, is the work on the formation of a constitutional committee. "It is important a statement be made on the necessity of launching the constitutional committee, which is to begin drafting the country’s new constitution by the end of the current year," Dolgov noted.
The Russian expert also said that the Istanbul format may be extended by admitting Iran. "The Russian president reiterated that it is necessary that the Iranian side should take part in further meetings in this format if they are organized," Dolgov said.
At the same time, he was skeptical about the United States’ participation in this format. "The United States has its own position on the Syrian crisis. It has been voiced from the very beginning: it is the removal of the Syrian government and Syrian President Bashar Assad from power," the expert noted. "The United States’ participation is unlikely to have been necessary and would unlikely be positive."
The leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Turkey met in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss ways of invigorating efforts towards Syrian settlement. The three-hour summit, held in this format for the first time, confirmed that all the parties stand for a political and diplomatic solution to the problem. Apart from that, the four leaders spoke in favor of increasing humanitarian assistance to Syria, including restoration of ruined infrastructure as part of these efforts.