Russia, Turkey and Iran pledge to boost Syria truce after peace talks

UN envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura speaks to the media during the second day of Syria peace talks at Astana's Rixos President Hotel on January 24, 2017. / AFP / Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV

ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN // Russia, Iran and Turkey pledged to bolster a fragile truce in Syria on Tuesday but a lasting political solution to the conflict appeared distant after two days of talks between Damascus and rebels.

At the conclusion of the conference on Syria’s nearly six-year war in Astana, the three countries said they will use their “influence” to strengthen the shaky truce, which has been in place since December 30.

The three powers also agreed armed rebel groups should take part in a new round of peace talks set to be hosted by the United Nations in Geneva next month.

“There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict and ... it can only be solved through a political process,” said the final communique by Russia, Iran and Turkey, read out by Kazakh foreign minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

Following the declaration, Syria’s delegates to the Astana meeting held competing press conferences that underlined the enormous differences between the two sides.

“We don’t accept any role for Iran in the future of Syria,” said Mohammad Alloush, the head of the rebel delegation, insisting that all Iranian-backed foreign militias fighting alongside the Syrian government withdraw from Syria.

Syria’s UN envoy Bashar Ja’afari, said it was “pitiful” that the opposition was criticising one of the three guarantors who facilitated the agreement.

Mr Jaafari said that military operations in an area near the Syrian capital would continue despite a pledge to enforce the ceasefire “as long as there are terrorists depriving seven million people in the capital Damascus from drinking water”.

The two days of meetings in Astana – which have left the West sidelined – were mainly a Kremlin initiative and come as Russia has made itself the main powerbroker in Syria with its military support for Mr Al Assad a gamechanger.

The meeting was expected to see the first face-to-face negotiations between the regime and the armed opposition since Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011, but the rebels backed out and mediators were forced to shuttle between the two sides.

The latest diplomatic initiative to end the bloodshed in Syria that has cost 310,000 lives comes one month after regime forces, aided by Russia and Iran, dealt a crushing blow to the rebels by retaking full control of the country’s second city Aleppo.

Meanwhile, the extremist group Jabhat Fateh Al Sham launched an assault and seized some positions from rebels from Free Syrian Army groups in northwestern Syria, rebel officials said on Tuesday.

Fateh Al Sham changed its name from Nusra Front last year after cutting its ties with Al Qaeda.

An official in one of the rebel groups said the attack in rural areas west of Aleppo overnight, was the first time Fateh Al Sham had attacked the FSA groups in that area.

* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters