MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. The Russian side proposed several dates for a four-side meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey during the Deputy Foreign Minister’ consultations of in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in his greeting speech before the start of the consultations Tuesday.
"I will anticipate your agreement about the date of the meeting in Moscow at the level of Foreign Ministers with my friends and colleagues Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Faisal Mekdad. We’ve proposed several dates that might be acceptable for everyone at the end of your negotiations round," Lavrov noted.
Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that Deputy Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey discussed the preparation for a four-side meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers during the consultation in Moscow on April 3-4.
The process of normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus started on December 28, 2022, when Defense Ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey held consultations in Moscow. The meeting resulted in an agreement on establishment of a joint trilateral commission. These consultations are expected to be followed be a meeting at the level of Foreign Ministers, with the agenda including the issue of negotiations between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar Assad. Later, the media reported that Iran will also take part in the meeting of Foreign Ministers.
On December 15, Erdogan told reporters that he offered his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to hold a trilateral meeting with the Syrian leader. This summit, in his opinion, must be preceded by negotiations at the level of intelligence representatives, Defense and Foreign Ministers.