Turkey to host Syria summit with Russian, French, German leaders

The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany will meet in Istanbul on Saturday to try and find a lasting political solution to the Syrian civil war and consolidate a fragile ceasefire in a rebel-held northern province.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a summit on the conflict, in which more than 360,000 people have been killed since 2011.

Saturday's summit will be the first to bring together the Turkish and Russian leaders with the European Union's two most significant national leaders.

The summit is expected to start at around 4:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) and the four leaders are expected to issue a joint statement ahead of individual press conferences.

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Friday that the primary goal would be to "clarify the steps to be taken for a political solution and to determine a road map."

Forming a commission to create Syria's post-war constitution, seen as a stepping stone to staging elections in the war-torn country, would be a particular point of emphasis, Kalin told the state-run news agency Anadolu.

The talks will also look to extend a ceasefire around the last major rebel-held bastion of Idlib, where aid groups have warned that a military offensive could spark one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the seven-year war.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C) gestures during a meeting with Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal (R) and Iran's Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari (L) in Moscow, Russia, October 24, 2018.

With an assault by government troops seeming imminent, last month Russia and Turkey agreed to create a demilitarized buffer zone in Idlib, which is home to three million people.

The September 17 deal for the 15-20 kilometer-wide zone came after a flurry of diplomatic activity as Turkey sought to avoid an assault leading to a further influx of people across its border.

Syrian constitutional committee must be formed in orderly manner: Chinese envoy

China's envoy to the United Nations said Friday that Syria's constitutional committee must be formed in a steady and orderly manner.

Resolving differences requires all parties to work together and meet each other half-way, said Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

While forming the constitutional committee, a balance must be struck between the legitimate concerns of the Syrian government and those of the other parties in order to make it representative and acceptable to all, Ma told the Security Council.

Participants to the intra-Syrian talks in Russia's Sochi in January agreed to set up a constitutional committee for drafting a new constitution.

China's Ambassador to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East and Idlib, Syria at the United Nations headquarters in New York, September 06, 2018.

The international community should push for the revitalization of a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process in which Syria's sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity must be respected, said the Chinese envoy.

Thanks to the efforts of Syrians themselves and the support of the international community, the situation in Syria remains stable and a political settlement process has maintained momentum, he noted, adding that the future of Syria will ultimately be determined by the Syrian people.

China is ready to work with the international community to facilitate the political settlement in Syria and to improve the country's humanitarian situation, he said.

(AFP&CGTN)