MOSCOW — The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed Thursday on the need to coordinate on eventual arrangements for northeastern Syria after an expected U.S. troop withdrawal, but they remained far apart on what those plans could entail.
The talks in Russia’s Black Sea resort town of Sochi underscored the various interests at play in Syria — Russia and Iran as key backers of President Bashar Assad, and Turkey seeking to keep close watch on Syrian Kurds seen by Ankara as potential threats.
The three-way statement — by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Iran’s Hassan Rouhani — also showed concerns over any vacuum caused by President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out troops who have been battling the Islamic State in Syria’s northeast.
“It is our joint view that the [U.S. withdrawal] is a positive move that will help stabilize this part of Syria, where legitimate government control should eventually be restored,” Putin said after the trio met for the latest round of Kremlin-initiated talks aimed at finding a way to end the eight-year conflict.
The three countries, each of which have forces stationed in Syria, agreed to work on a plan for postwar Syria at a 2017 conference in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, but remain far apart on ways to bring about a final settlement.
