MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Moscow expects that the summit of the Russian, Iranian and Turkish leaders in Tehran will facilitate a diplomatic settlement to the crisis in Syria and will discourage Ankara from launching a military operation, Russia’s special presidential representative for Syria said on Tuesday.

However, this will take a while after the meeting to reach the final solution to the issue, Alexander Lavrentyev said. "The Russian Federation is making efforts to persuade the Turkish leadership not to use force to solve the pending problems, but to try to find a solution through negotiations and dialogue between the interested parties. We hope that this trilateral summit will in fact contribute to progress on this issue in the necessary direction of a political dialogue," Lavrentyev told journalists.

That said, Lavrentyev does not believe that a solution will be found at the summit. "I think that it will take some time, but of course, the trilateral summit will facilitate a settlement to this problem to a great extent", the special envoy specified.

On July 2, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused the Turkish leadership of trying to "justify, under a far-fetched pretext, a planned invasion of Syrian territory." According to him, Ankara's actions are in "gross violation of international law and the UN Charter, as well as of the principles of good neighborliness".

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the Turkish armed forces intended to conduct a new cross-border operation in the north of Syria - in Tel Rifaat and Manbij - and then, he said, the military actions would involve Ayn al-Arab and Ayn Issa.