Turkish-Syria Rapprochement, under Russian Mediation, Continues

Jan. 2, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—The rapprochement between Syria and Turkiye under Russian mediation continues to move forward. Following the meeting of the three countries’ defense ministers and intelligence chiefs in Moscow on Dec. 28, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held a phone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the details of a tripartite ministerial meeting with his Syrian counterpart, according to the Turkiye’s Hurriyet Daily News.

Lavrov reportedly asked Çavuşoğlu when to hold the meeting, to which he replied: “Let’s prepare well. Let’s do it whenever we’re ready,” adding that Lavrov had proposed the second half of January.

Çavuşoğlu was speaking to reporters in Brasilia on the sidelines of the Jan. 1, 2023 swearing-in ceremony of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “We haven’t decided where to hold it yet. It could also be in Moscow. It can also happen in a third country. We talked about some countries,” he said without naming them.

“So what we are going to talk about, it goes upwards. First meeting at the technical level, military intelligence. Then the political stage, the foreign affairs, then a higher meeting in the future or not.” Çavuşoğlu said, stressing that “we need to make it work.”

According to Hurriyet, a Russian Foreign Ministry statement declared: “The Ministers mutually congratulated the New Year and discussed cooperation plans for 2023 between the foreign ministries, including further coordination of steps for the resolution of the Syrian issue.”