INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated Saturday that Syria need to not be allowed to fall into the hands of a terrorist group as
Islamist-led rebels bear down President Bashar al-Assads seat of power.Lavrov spoke after talks on Saturday with fellow Assad ally Iran and
opposition fan Turkey in Qatar, aimed at preventing Syria from collapsing into turmoil after the lightning rebel advances of recent days
Its inadmissible to enable the terrorist group to take control of area in violation of agreements, Lavrov stated, mentioning a 2015 UN
Security Council Resolution which he stated highly repeated sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of the Syrian Arab Republic
Lavrov was referring to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist group which has headed the attack and is rooted in the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda
HTS has sought to soften its image in the last few years but remains proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Western governments.Lavrov
and Iran's Abbas Araghchi met with Turkeys Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, an annual event for political dialogue.Araghchi
said the 3 ministers agreed on the need to begin political discussion between the Syrian federal government and legitimate opposition
The 3 countries have been partners since 2017 in the so-called Astana procedure seeking to end the civil war that has actually continued
Regardless of duplicated infractions, a 2020 ceasefire agreement brokered by Russia and Turkey had actually largely frozen the dispute for a
number of years but it was blown apart by the shock offensive the rebels released late last month.Moscow and Tehran have used military
support to help Assads forces hold back the rebels.Ankara backs some of the rebel groups involved in the offensive and looks favourably at
HTS success so far.However, the scale of the collapse of Assads forces has actually taken observers by surprise with conflicting reports
about how close the rebels have concerned Assads seat of power in Damascus.On Saturday, a rebel commander said, Our forces have actually
started the last phase of surrounding the capital , but the defence ministry stated there is no fact to news claiming the army has
actually withdrawn from positions near Damascus.AFP has actually been unable to individually verify a few of the details offered by the
federal government and the rebels, as its journalists in Syria can not reach the areas around Damascus where the rebels claim to have
entered.Qatar which offered early support to the rebels after Assads government squashed a peaceful uprising in 2011 remains a strong critic
of the Syrian leader but is calling for a negotiated end to the fighting.Speaking at the very same event in Doha, Qatars Prime Minister
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani said Assad had actually stopped working to take these chances during a period of calm
in the nations war both on the return of the refugees or on reconciling with his own people
Ahead of the three-way talks, Araghchi said he had extremely frank and direct bilateral meetings with his Turkish equivalent and the ruler
of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gotten in touch with Assad previously this week to reconcile with his people
On Friday he stated he hoped the rebel advance would continue without event
Ahead of the talks in Doha, Araghchi consulted with his Iraqi and Syrian counterparts in Baghdad on Friday, cautioning that the rebel
advance postures a hazard to the entire Middle East
This risk will not be limited to Syria and will affect Syrias neighbouring nations such as Iraq, Jordan and Turkey, he stated.
