The two main allies of the Syrian Government, Iran and Russia, and the greatest support of the armed opposition to President Bashar al Asad, Turkey, brought positions closer this Saturday to call for a cessation of hostilities in the midst of the offensive of the Islamist rebels and begin a dialogue that ends the war in Syria.

The Doha Forum was the scene of the first contact between the foreign ministers of these three powers that guarantee the ceasefire in Syria and that are part of the so-called Astana Format, a mechanism established in 2017 to find a solution to the war in the Arab country.

“We firmly confirm our call to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria. We call for the immediate cessation of war actions and the beginning of the dialogue between the Government and the legal opposition forces,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his speech at the forum.

Consensus between the parties

On November 27, an insurgent coalition led by the Liberation Agency of the Levant (heir to the former Syrian subsidiary of Al Qaeda) launched an offensive against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, and in just over a week, they have controlled the cities of Aleppo and Hama, both provincial capitals.

They are now at the gates of the city of Homs, in central Syria, and in case they control it they would further isolate Damascus, since it would cut the land connection with the Mediterranean coast.

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This new crisis has set off all the alarms in the Middle East, something that is becoming evident this weekend in Doha, where most of the discussions and interviews revolve around the delicate situation that Syria is going through and the uncertain future of Al Asad.

In Doha, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, also insisted that “there was a consensus among all participants that the conflict must end immediately, the territorial integrity of Syria must be respected and, most importantly, the political dialogue between the Syrian Government and the legitimate opposition groups must continue.”

In the midst of the meetings between the heads of the diplomacy of Iran, Turkey and Russia, the Turkish president, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also called on all sides involved in the conflict in Syria, as well as “international organizations”, to protect the territorial unity of the Arab country.

“The best thing for our region will be that all actors who have responsibilities, all international organizations, support the protection of the territorial integrity of Syria,” Erdogan said during a speech to his party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep.

A “fundamentally different” process

Among the participants of these high-level meetings in Doha was also the UN special envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen, who said in a brief appearance before the media that Turkey, Russia and Iran want to end the crisis and start a political process.

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“I have called for urgent political talks in Geneva to implement Security Council resolution 2254. I am pleased to say that the ministers and everyone I am talking to support this appeal, and my hope is that a date for it can be announced very soon,” Pedersen said.

He thus referred to the resolution that in 2015 was unanimously approved by the UN Security Council, which lays the foundations for the achievement of a ceasefire and a negotiated solution to the conflict in force in Syria since 2011.

“My hope is that we can announce a date for this very soon,” said the diplomat, who said that he also held consultations with representatives of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union, and that these meetings will continue on Sunday, at a time when the situation in Syria “changes every minute.”

“The need for an orderly political transition has never been more urgent, starting with the urgent formation of credible and inclusive transitional arrangements in Syria,” said Pedersen, who added that this requires “a serious and urgent process, fundamentally different from what has happened so far.”

This new process, according to the special envoy, should be the beginning of a roadmap that “leads to the realization of the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people and the restoration of the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria.”

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