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Russian, Iranian, Turkish leaders begin summit in Astana format

The summit was initially planned to be held in Tehran back in 2020 but was postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic

TEHRAN, July 19. /TASS/. Russian, Iranian and Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin, Ebrahim Raisi and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have begun an Astana-format summit on Syrian settlement.

After the traditional photographing ceremony, they will begin their discussions at Tehran’s international congress center.

The summit was initially planned to be held in Tehran back in 2020 but was postponed several times due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that the three presidents will discuss joint measures to reach a final and lasting settlement in Syria. "Special attention will be focused on issues of the normalization of the situation on the territories that are not controlled by the Syrian government, in Idlib and on the Euphrates eastern bank," he said, adding that the United States continues to destabilize the situation on the Euphrates eastern bank by encouraging separatism and supplying weapons to the Kurdish quasi-structures. The humanitarian situation in Syria will also be discussed.

According to Ushakov, after the summit, the presidents will adopt a joint statement and come out with statements for the press.

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