President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted Turkey's determination to clear terrorist groups, such as the YPG/PKK, from Syria, as terrorists pose the greatest threat to peace in Syria and the region.
Speaking at a trilateral summit with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Erdoğan said Ankara expects its Astana partners to sincerely support its efforts to establish peace and stability in northern Syria.
"If there is peace in Idlib now, it is thanks to the Astana process," he said.
For his part, Raisi said Syria’s fate should be decided by its people, without foreign intervention.
"Tehran supports a political solution to the Syrian crisis," he added.
Russia, Turkey and Iran vowed to continue their cooperation to "eliminate terrorists" in Syria, in a trilateral statement after the three countries' presidents met in Tehran.
The three countries "reaffirmed the determination to continue their ongoing cooperation in order to ultimately eliminate terrorist individuals, groups, undertakings and entities, while ensuring the protection of civilians and the civilian infrastructure in accordance with international humanitarian law," the statement read.
They discussed the situation in northern Syria, emphasized that permanent security and stability in this region can only be achieved on the basis of the preservation of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and agreed to coordinate their efforts in this direction, according to the statement.
They “expressed their opposition to the illegal seizure and transfer of oil revenues that should have belonged to Syria,” it added.
The sides vowed also to enhance their trilateral economic and political cooperation and agreed further to hold the next Astana meeting in Russia.
On the other side, Turkey, Russia and Iran condemned Israeli military attacks in Syria and said the attacks were considered as "violating international law, international humanitarian law, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Syria" while deeming the attacks as "destabilizing" the region.
