The trip signifies a new era of Turkey-Iran-Russia relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also heading to Tehran to meet his Iranian and Russian counterparts this week.
This comes in the wake of US President Joe Biden visiting the region. The goal of the July 18-19 meeting in Iran is ostensibly part of the Astana process relating to Syria and could have significant ramifications for Syria which remains divided.
The Russian and Iranian-backed Syrian regime controls the major cities, while Turkey controls northwest Syria and the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces control eastern Syria.
Russia’s goal in Syria is a stable Syrian regime. Iran’s goal is to use Syria as a base for threats against Israel and also to traffic weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Turkey’s goal in Syria is to use it as a dumping ground for Syrian refugee pushbacks, also to cultivate pro-Turkish Syrian rebel groups; and to remove Kurds from border areas. The US goal in Syria is ostensibly to defeat ISIS, but ISIS was mostly defeated in 2019, and the US overall policy remains unclear. READ MORE
