(Al Jazeera Media Network) Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov has said he and his Iranian and Turkish counterparts are calling for “an end to hostile activities” in Syria, where opposition fighters have made a rapid advance in a major challenge to President Bashar al-Assad.
Speaking to Al Jazeera at the Doha Forum in the Qatari capital on Saturday, Lavrov said Russia, Iran, and Turkiye expressed support for “dialogue between the government and legitimate opposition” in Syria.
The three countries have been involved since 2017 in the so-called Astana Format talks seeking a political settlement in Syria, and their top diplomats – Lavrov, Iran’s Abbas Araghchi, and Turkiye’s Hakan Fidan – met in a trilateral format on the sidelines of the Doha Forum.
“We called for immediate end to hostile activities. We stated, all of us, that we want the [United Nations] Resolution 2254 to be fully implemented, and for this purpose, called for the dialogue between the government and legitimate opposition,” Lavrov said.
Resolution 2254 outlines a commitment to the “sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity” of Syria, and says the only solution to the years-long conflict will be through “an inclusive and Syrian-led political process.”
Asked whether Moscow – a key backer of al-Assad and the Syrian army – believes the Syrian president can hang onto power, Lavrov said he was “not in the business of guessing.”
“We agreed today with Iran and Turkiye to issue a strong call, which I described, and we will be doing some specific steps to make sure that this call is heeded,” he said.
Lavrov’s comments came as fighters led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group have made a lightning advance in Syria over days, taking control of key cities, including Aleppo and Hama.
On Saturday, Syrian opposition groups said their forces had taken control of Homs, a strategic city linking the capital Damascus to coastal parts of the country where al-Assad enjoys support from the Alawite community. Opposition fighters have also made gains in Deraa and Sweida, in southwestern Syria near the border with Jordan, and taken control of some towns in the Damascus countryside.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/12/7/lavrov-says-russia-wants-immediate-end-to-fighting-in-syria
