Turkish, Russian and Iranian leaders in Ankara on Wednesday stated that they were committed to achieving a "lasting ceasefire" in Syria. A joint statement is issued by the leaders following the summit between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the press conference, Turkish President Erdoğan said that "as Turkey, we are fulfilling our responsibilities with regards to de-escalation zones in Syria. By erecting an eighth observation post in Idlib, I think we have shown our decisiveness. We want the whole world to take a note that territorial integrity of Syria depends on taking equal distance from all terror organizations."

Erdoğan noted that Turkey will work together with Russia and Iran to improve the living conditions of Syrians who have returned to the Tal Refaat. Erdoğan stated that Turkey would not stop till ensuring security in all regions under the control of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed forced People's Protection Units (YPG), which Turkey regards as the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been fighting inside Turkey for more than 30 years. Erdoğan also responded to the U.S. claims that the fight against Syrian-Kurdish militia weakens the fight against Islamic State (Daesh).

“Our fight against PYD/YPG does not prevent or hinder the fight against Daesh, instead it complements it. Any approach that denies the fact that Daesh and PYD work for the same objectives cannot contribute to a sustainable peace to be established in Syria,” told Erdoğan.

Iranian President Rouhani began his speech by thanking President Erdoğan for his sincere hospitality then slammed the United States for wanting "terrorist organizations like Daesh to last a long time in our region as their tools so that they can use them." Rouhani stated that the peoples of Syria and Iraq had foiled this "big conspiracy" by the U.S.

Russian President Putin stated that the heads of the three countries discussed how to establish normalisation in Syria and that they are determined to protect Syria’s territorial integrity and independence.

“Our aim is to wipe out the terrorists totally. They are trying to prevent our efforts for peace. They attempt to stage provocations during which militants use hazardous chemicals, We have clear proofs of this,” said Putin.

The joint declaration said the leaders “reject all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism.”

It added that they “expressed their determination to stand against separatist agendas aimed at undermining Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the national security of neighboring countries.”

During the question and answer season, Iranian President Ruhani, when asked about what the Iranian and Turkish government would do about the sabotage they might face in Syria, said, "so far we have seen that that Americans and Israelis have been unsuccessful. They want terrorists to be in control. They were going after their own interests. Despite the fact they they [Americans and Israelis] created some problems for the Syrian people, we still cannot say they were successful."

Turkish President also responded to the same question and said Turkey cannot accept the division of the territory of Syria that some people might have planned.

Erdoğan and Rouhani also evaluated the U.S.’s plans to withdraw from Syria.

“Americans say a different thing everyday. We can trust neither the statements nor the promises of the recent American government,” Rouhani said. “They said they wanted to withdraw, but later it was understood that they were after money. They say to Arab countries ‘if you give us money, we will stay in Syria’”.

“My friend Rouhani does not say the amount of money. It is 7 trillion dollars. They say that this is the amount equal to their costs up to now, they say that this amount should be given to them,” added Erdoğan.</s>Commander in chief Donald Trump has America’s military brass reaching for the biggest jar of Excedrin the generals can find. After the president’s tweets and taunts of the past few days, who could blame them? Two fluid situations that still were unfolding Wednesday:
• On the border with Mexico, Trump would deploy the National Guard to intensify his crackdown on illegal immigration. That’s the job of the U.S. Border Patrol, which says illegal immigrant crossings are at their lowest since 1971. But Trump’s not fazed. “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military,” he declared this week. On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the administration will ask governors in border states to deploy National Guard units as backup for Border Patrol agents.
• In Syria, meanwhile, Trump wants to withdraw American troops. That would leave a volatile mix in and around that hothouse country: regular military and irregular combatants from Russia, Iran and Turkey; forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad; moderate rebels; and the remnants of Islamic State that also menace war-weary Syrians. But Trump’s had enough, and earlier this week announced he wants “to get out. I want to bring our troops back home.”

The problem with those two strategies is that they don’t reflect on-the-ground realities on the Mexican border or in Syria.

The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria. Their job is to advise and help Syrian Kurd and Arab forces battle what’s left of the Islamic State forces, and to direct air strikes against the group. Though Islamic State has been defeated in most of the territory it held, including its de facto capital, Raqqa, remnants of the group remain near Syria’s border with Iraq.

Keeping an American troop presence in Syria also gums up plans of Russia and Iran to expand their influence in the Middle East. And it keeps Turkey from squashing U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters who helped free Raqqa.

We acknowledge that we’re dealing here with mixed signals from White House sources. The Washington Post reported that Trump has told his military leaders to ready the troop withdrawal, though he hasn’t set a timetable. The New York Times, however, reported that the White House has tried to walk back the president’s words. “The United States and our partners remain committed to eliminating the small ISIS presence in Syria that our forces have not already eradicated,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. That suggested U.S. troops would remain in Syria.

As for the Mexican border, Trump may be overselling the actual role the National Guard would play. Nobody, we trust, envisions a military confrontation. Yes, such troops could help Border Patrol agents with surveillance and some other tasks; Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both deployed National Guard troops in support roles. But Nielsen’s inability to discuss troop numbers in such a border deployment, let alone its price tag, suggests an initiative that’s being hastily thrown together. Or is all this White House talk primarily political grandstanding?

Border security is, and always will be, a top priority. So is bringing American troops home from Syria — when their mission is complete. We’ve criticized Obama for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq prematurely, one reason Islamic State got a foothold there.

Any military deployment should be crafted more carefully than tweets, and fully explained to citizens who contribute the manpower and the money. In these two cases, Trump has met neither burden.

Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook.</s>Judging by what Donald Trump has been saying about the Syrian civil war for two years, his most recent comments should not catch anyone by surprise.

U.S. President Donald Trump's remark last week about leaving Syria soon came as a surprise announcement, but it should not be for those who have been tracking his views about Syria.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump attacked his predecessor Barack Obama's Syria policy. Obama's initial goal in Syria was to drive Syrian dictator Bashar Assad from power, as he was the first around the world to say that Assad must go. He later abandoned this policy, chose to ignore Assad's massacres, focused on the brutal Daesh terrorist organization and asked everyone else to do the same. Even when Assad crossed his infamous "red lines" regarding chemical weapons in Eastern Ghouta in August 2013, he did not take action. Long-time U.S. ally Turkey, which has an 822-kilometer border with Syria, warned Obama that the way he was making policy that would not save the future of Syria, and he ignored it. Obama has been gone for more than a year, and the war in Syria is far from ending. The Democratic Union Party (PYD) terror organization, the outlawed PKK's affiliate in Syria, which took Obama's blessing to fight Daesh with its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, has long been giving another war against U.S.-ally Turkey to found a statelet in northern Syria.

Trump, on the other hand, has never said that his priority in Syria would be a humanitarian intervention to save civilians or help the millions of Syrian refugees who had to flee their homes. In fact, he has never spoken of humanitarian issues like Obama. At least he was not lying. He has not cared about Syrian lives and he has not promised anything. He just wanted to kill Daesh terrorists who might attack the United States and to keep refugees and other Muslims away from his country. He has been thinking that he inherited the Syria problem from Obama and he has had to deal with it. He even attacked Obama before he was elected, saying that his predecessor was the founder of Daesh.

Regarding Assad, in a presidential debate, he said: "I don't like him at all, but Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS and Iran is killing ISIS," referring to Daesh. I think that was a quite clear expression of his Syria policy. Long before he decided to run for president, in June 2013, he wrote on Twitter: "We should stay the hell out of Syria." Although he acted different than Obama and launched an attack on a Syrian regime airfield with 59 Tomahawk missiles when he learned that Assad used chemical weapons on rebel-held areas, it was just a one-time occurrence. Actually, he used the opportunity to catch the world's eyes and show that there was a new sheriff in town. When the Eastern Ghouta chemical attack happened, he warned Obama to stay out of Syria in his tweets, saying: "Remember, all these 'freedom fighters' in Syria want to fly planes into our buildings." There was no doubt that he saw the opposition fighters in Syria as wanna-be terrorists.

We also recall that during his campaign he said he would like to "get together with Russia" to "knock the hell out of ISIS" if he becomes the next U.S. president. Even though his keenness to cooperate with Russian President Vladimir Putin against Daesh in Syria has sparked outrage among many Democrats and Republicans, Trump did not bother to indicate that he thought Putin was a great man. I believe he would already have offered a relationship of cooperation that would benefit Moscow more than Washington in order to bomb the hell out of terrorists and withdraw from costly situations overseas if he did not have the Russia investigation problem. So, military experts' assessments about a U.S. withdrawal from Syria would be a win for Russia and something that Trump could ignore.

There were also signs that Trump was not happy with the Pentagon's strategy to continue supporting the YPG in Syria after Obama. When he first came to office, he asked the Pentagon to prepare a new plan to annihilate Daesh, but he was presented one that looked similar to Obama's. Above all, what the Pentagon did was offensive and demotivating. He was not happy about it, but he seemed to accept it as he was not welcomed in Washington and he had much bigger problems to solve.He also told President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over a phone call in November 2017 that he had issued instructions that weapons delivered from the U.S. should not be provided to the YPG in Syria. The Pentagon made a quick statement contradicting Trump and continue to send weapons to the YPG. That was not only another tiring and blind response to an old NATO-ally like Turkey, but also a humiliating act against their own president.

There have been rumors since February that Trump was telling his top aides that he wanted to withdraw from Syria as soon as victory against Daesh is declared. And it was recently reported that he asked Saudi King Salman for $4 billion in stabilization aid to hasten a U.S. exit from Syria. The latest reports revealing that the Trump administration has frozen $200 million of U.S. funds for projects in places such as Raqqa signals his seriousness. Now that Raqqa was taken back and the Daesh threat is about to end, it looks like there is nothing left in Syria for Trump, who wants to get rid of excessive costs in the devastated country as soon as possible and get out of there for a long time.

But how will Israel, the closest Middle East ally of the U.S., and other regional states that come closer to Washington after Trump was elected, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, react to Trump's intention? It is known that they are increasingly alarmed over Iran's expansion in Syria. In their eyes, the U.S. presence in Syria means blocking rising influence from Tehran and its allies like Hezbollah in the war-torn country.

Trump made the announcement in question during a speech on Thursday in Ohio, in which he said: "We're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We're coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now." Now the question is who Trump means by "the other people." Is it Russia that Trump believes will be successful against wanna-be terrorists in Syria since the beginning of the civil war? Are they the Europeans like France, which still feels historic ties to the region and looks eager to fill the void the U.S. could leave behind, or the Saudis and/or Israelis, which after such a withdrawal would feel that they would have to do what they could not make the U.S. do? Or did he mean Turkey, which would anger those at the Pentagon who insist on staying in Syria, arguing that they have to continue to focus on the fight against Daesh and stick to their policy with further support to the YPG? Trump's vague announcement brings us an equation with multiple variables to solve.</s>A U.S. soldier sits on an armored vehicle behind a sand barrier at a newly installed position near the tense front line between the U.S-backed Syrian Manbij Military Council and the Turkish-backed fighters, in Manbij, north Syria, Wednesday, April 4, 2018

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is dramatically scaling back U.S. goals in Syria as he pushes for a quick military withdrawal, Trump administration officials said Wednesday, abandoning plans to stay long-term to stabilize the country and prevent the Islamic State group from re-emerging.

Trump has given no formal order to pull out the 2,000 U.S. troops currently in Syria, nor offered a public timetable, other than to say the United States will pull out just as soon as the last remaining IS fighters can be vanquished. But Trump has signaled to his advisers that ideally, he wants all troops out within six months, according to three U.S. officials - a finale that would come shortly before the U.S. midterm elections.

In his haste to withdraw from Syria, Trump stands alone. The Pentagon, the State Department and CIA are all deeply concerned about the potential ramifications if the U.S. leaves behind a power vacuum in Syria, as are Israel, Arab leaders and other nations in the U.S.-led coalition that has fought IS in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

The president made clear his patience was running out as he met top national security aides on Tuesday. Yet the meeting concluded with no hard-and-fast deadline handed down, leaving Trump's team struggling to deduce how fast is fast enough for Trump, according to officials briefed on the meeting who weren't authorized to discuss it and requested anonymity.

The tense disagreement between Trump and his team has played out in chaotic and increasingly public fashion. On Tuesday, before the Syria meeting, Trump was telling television cameras he wanted to "get out," just as the U.S. special envoy for fighting IS insisted "our mission isn't over." And on Wednesday, the White House issued a statement that declared the IS mission is "coming to a rapid end" but avoided specifics altogether.

"We will continue to consult with our allies and friends regarding future plans," said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Urging him to slow down, Trump's aides have been emphasizing that IS fighters remain active in Syria, evidence that Trump's own, publicly stated objective - the total defeat of IS - has yet to be met. Officials said the U.S. is tracking two pockets where IS remains viable - one in the Middle Euphrates River Valley region, another along the Iraq-Syria border. And despite the White House's insistence that the group is "almost completely defeated," a string of renewed IS attacks in recent weeks has raised fears about a resurgence.

Regardless of exactly when the troops leave, the decision to remove them as soon as possible has forced an immediate realignment of long-term U.S. objectives in the country, officials said.

With no military presence to ensure security for American personnel, the U.S. will have to call off other planned operations to clear land mines, restore basic services like water and electricity, and create political conditions needed to resolve Syria's civil war. Already, Trump has put an indefinite hold on $200 million he pledged previously for those operations.

Those efforts by U.S. diplomats and aid workers have been seen as critical to ensuring that Syria's territory isn't exploited in the future by IS remnants, other extremists or Iran. They formed a key component of Trumps new Syria strategy, laid out by then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a speech in January declaring it "vital for the United States to remain engaged in Syria." But the speech, while formally approved by the White House, angered Trump, officials said, and the president fired Tillerson last month.

Instead, Trump will leave stabilizing Syria to other nations, in line with his long-stated view that the United States shoulders too much of global costs and should put "America first."

"I want to get out," Trump said. "I want to bring our troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation."

Trump has asked Saudi Arabia, which is keenly interested in keeping Iran out of Syria, to contribute $4 billion toward reconstruction and stabilization efforts that the U.S. no longer plans to undertake. He came away from a phone call Monday with King Salman confident that the king will agree to give the money, two U.S. officials briefed on the conversation said. The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.

Securing foreign dollars while pulling out troops could allow Trump to argue before the November midterms that he's shifted the burden of resolving far-flung crises away from America. But ceding influence over Syrian territory could hand more control to countries whose interests in the Middle East are sharply at odds with the United States.

As the White House was talking up a U.S. withdrawal on Wednesday, the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran were meeting in Ankara to hash out their own plans for Syria's future, including a continued Turkish operation to oust U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters from northern Syria. The three nations have been pushing their own diplomatic track for resolving Syria's civil war, even as the U.S. tries to rejuvenate United Nations-led talks.

"We have agreed to expand the entire range of our trilateral cooperation in Syria," Russian President Vladimir Putin said in the Turkish capital, claiming credit on the trio's behalf for the Islamic State group's near-defeat.

Russia has been propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad for years, with increasing help from Iranian-backed Shiite militias such as Hezbollah - to the dismay of U.S. allies such as Israel. A phone call Wednesday between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu grew tense because of the Israeli leader's concerns that the U.S. will withdraw and allow Israel's enemies to gain a further foothold in a neighboring country, two U.S. officials said.

Nor is it clear that the U.S. has capable local partners lined up to handle basic security and prevent a total collapse following a precipitous U.S. pullout - a prospect that offers unsettling echoes of the 2011 U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. As a candidate, Trump derided President Barack Obama for that decision and argued that the resulting power vacuum enabled the formation of the Islamic State.

The Syrian Kurds, the most effective fighting force in Syria aligned with Washington, recently shifted to fighting Turkish forces in the area of Afrin. That forced a pause in operations against the main IS holdout in Syria. The Pentagon has warned that the distraction could give IS the reprieve it needs to regroup after four years of being pummeled.

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Matthew Lee, Robert Burns, Catherine Lucey and Darlene Superville in Washington and Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.</s>Turkey, Russia and Iran have said they were committed to achieving a "lasting ceasefire" in Syria, in a joint statement issued following a summit in Ankara hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russia's Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating for "the achievement of a lasting ceasefire between the conflicting parties", a joint statement on Wednesday said.

The three powers have been working together to speed up the process of finding a political solution in Syria as part of the Astana peace process which began last year.

The Ankara summit at Erdogan's presidential palace was the second such tripartite summit following one in November 2017 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi hosted by Putin.

However, they still have big differences over Syria's future.</s>The presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia vowed to work for a lasting ceasefire after over seven years of civil war in Syria, following a summit aimed at boosting both peace prospects and also their influence in the country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Russia's Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating for "the achievement of a lasting ceasefire between the conflicting parties", a joint communique said.

The meeting in Ankara was the second such tripartite summit after the first hosted by Putin in November in the Black Sea city of Sochi, in a new symbol of an increasingly deep cooperation.

However there was no major breakthrough announced after the summit meeting, and comments by the trio indicated possible tensions in what analysts see as a potentially brittle alliance.

The three powers have backed peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, which they argue are a parallel process to UN-supported discussions in Geneva.

Erdogan insisted their meetings and the Astana talks were not an "alternative" to the Geneva process to find peace in Syria, at a post-summit press conference.

But the three presidents said that so far, "the Astana format had been the only effective international initiative that had helped reduce violence across Syria and had contributed to peace and stability".

- 'Something different every day' -

Experts say that Ankara, Moscow and Tehran are looking to take advantage of the waning Western influence in Syria and reluctance to commit militarily.

Hours before the summit, US President Donald Trump said he wanted to "bring our troops back home" from Syria after indicating last week the US would withdraw from the country "very soon".

But Rouhani hit back, complaining that the "Americans say something different every day."

Unlike the West, the three countries have deployed significant military resources in Syria, with Tehran having a strong ground presence and Moscow ruling the skies.

Turkey meanwhile drove out Kurdish militia from Afrin city on March 18, two months after it launched an offensive in northern Syria supporting Syrian rebels.

Ankara has indicated Turkey could extend its operation to the Kurdish-held town of Manbij and further east, as well as the northern Syrian town of Tal Rifaat.

"We are ready to work together with our Iranian and Russian friends to make Tal Rifaat region liveable for our Syrian brothers and sisters," Erdogan said.

So far the three powers -- whose imperial predecessor states spent much of the last centuries at war -- have managed to keep a lid on their differences on Syria.

While Moscow and Tehran support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad politically and militarily, Turkey has repeatedly called for his removal and supported Syrian opposition fighters.

But experts say disputes between Moscow and Ankara could come to the fore when the regime turns its attention to Idlib province.

Idlib's civilian infrastructure is largely controlled by the jihadist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Turkey is keen to prevent a Russia-backed regime assault on the province home to around 2.5 million people. But Moscow wants Ankara to also exert influence over the jihadists in control of Idlib.

Tensions may also be emerging behind the scene between Russia and Iran, with Moscow much more concerned to press for reform under Assad than Tehran.

Meanwhile, according to the Iranian presidency, Rouhani said in the closed-door session that the Afrin area taken by Turkey and its allied forces should be handed over to the Syrian regime's army.

He argued that the Syrian army "is still the symbol of this country's national sovereignty". Turkey's reaction was not made public.

Erdogan also expressed alarm over the situation in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, which has come under heavy regime bombardment over the last weeks, creating a major humanitarian crisis.

Syrian state news agency SANA said evacuations from the former rebel bastion's main town of Douma of Jaish al-Islam fighters and family members were ongoing for a third day.

Erdogan said that the bloodshed in Ghouta had been "ruthless" but avoided any direct criticism of Russia and Putin as the backers of the Syrian regime.

More than 350,000 people have been killed since the war began following anti-government protests in 2011, while millions have been internally displaced or forced to flee.</s>The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey have met in Ankara for talks on resolving the conflict in Syria.

The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey have met in Ankara for talks on resolving the conflict in Syria.

Leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey meet for talks on Syria’s future

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani were holding their second summit to discuss Syria’s future since attending a similar meeting in Sochi, Russia, in November.

The leaders meeting in the Turkish capital are expected to reaffirm their commitment to Syria’s territorial integrity and the continuation of local ceasefires. Talks are also expected to include the issues of border security, the distribution of humanitarian aid and drawing up a constitution for the country.

Russia and Iran have provided crucial support to President Bashar Assad’s forces, while Turkey has backed the rebels seeking to overthrow him. The three nations have sponsored several rounds of talks between the Syrian government and the opposition, and brokered local truces in four areas, helping to reduce hostilities.

The leaders locked hands while posing for photos at the start of the meeting, but did not make opening remarks. Earlier, Mr Rouhani held separate bilateral meetings with Mr Putin and Mr Erdogan. Meanwhile, the Russian military said it expects a rebel evacuation from the suburbs of the Syrian capital to be completed in the coming days.

The Russian Defence Ministry and Syrian rebels struck a deal on Sunday for the Army of Islam, the biggest opposition group in the Damascus suburbs of eastern Ghouta, to leave the area for the rebel-controlled north. The rebels were still leaving the town of Douma, but the evacuation was expected to wrap up in the coming days, said Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff.

The evacuation comes after a five-week government offensive in February and March that killed hundreds of people and caused catastrophic damage in the besieged suburbs.</s>ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three foreign powers who have shaped Syria’s civil war - Iran, Russia and Turkey - will discuss ways to wind down the fighting on Wednesday despite their involvement in rival military campaigns on the ground.

The leaders of the three countries will meet in Ankara for talks on a new constitution for Syria and increasing security in “de-escalation” zones across the country, Turkish officials say.

The Syria summit brings together two powers which have been President Bashar al-Assad’s most forceful supporters, Iran and Russia, with one of his strongest opponents, Turkey.

Cooperation between the rival camps raised hopes of stabilizing Syria after seven years of conflict in which 500,000 people have been killed and half the population displaced.

But the violence has raged on, highlighting strategic rifts between the three countries who, in the absence of decisive Western intervention, hold Syria’s fate largely in their hands.

Syria’s army and Iran-backed militias, with Russian air power, have crushed insurgents near Damascus in eastern Ghouta - one of the four mooted “de-escalation zones”.

Turkey, which sharply criticized the Ghouta offensive, waged its own military operation to drive Kurdish YPG fighters from the northwestern Syrian region of Afrin. It has pledged to take the town of Tel Rifaat and push further east, angering Iran.

“Whatever the intentions are, Turkey’s moves in Syria, whether in Afrin, Tel Rifaat or any other part of Syria, should be halted as soon as possible,” a senior Iranian official said.

Iran has been Assad’s most supportive ally throughout the conflict. Iran-backed militias first helped his army stem rebel advances and, following Russia’s entry into the war in 2015, turn the tide decisively in Assad’s favor.

A Turkish official said Ankara will ask Moscow to press Assad to grant more humanitarian access in Ghouta, and to rein in air strikes on rebel-held areas. “We expect ... Russia to control the regime more,” the official told reporters this week.

Ankara’s relations with Moscow collapsed in 2015 when Turkey shot down a Russian warplane but have recovered since then - to the concern of Turkey’s Western allies.

Turkey was one of the few NATO partners not to expel Russian diplomats in response to a nerve agent attack on a former Russian agent which Britain blamed on Moscow - an allegation which Turkey said was not proven.

Improved political ties have been reflected in Turkey’s agreement to buy a Russian missile defence system and plans for Russia’s ROSATOM to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.

Turkey has also expanded relations with Iran, exchanging visits by military chiefs of staff, although its deepening ties with Tehran and Moscow have not translated into broader agreement on Syria’s future.

Iran remains determined that Assad stay in power, while Russia is less committed to keeping him in office, a regional diplomat said. Turkey says Assad has lost legitimacy, although it no longer demands his immediate departure.

At a meeting in Russia two months ago, boycotted by the leadership of Syria’s opposition, delegates agreed to set up a committee to rewrite Syria’s constitution and called for democratic elections.

Turkey says Wednesday’s meeting will discuss setting up the constitutional committee, humanitarian issues and developments in Syria’s northern Idlib region, which is under the control of rival rebel factions and jihadi groups, and where Turkey has set up seven military observation posts.

“There are issues where all three countries have different policies in Syria,” another Turkish official said. “In this regard, an aim is to find middle ground and create policies to improve the current situation.”</s>ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey, Iran and Russia pledged on Wednesday to accelerate efforts to bring stability to Syria, underlining their joint commitment to the country a day after President Donald Trump raised the prospect of withdrawing U.S. troops.

A statement by the three countries after a summit meeting in the Turkish capital Ankara said they were determined to “speed up their efforts to ensure calm on the ground” in Syria.

While their decision to work together has done little to reduce violence in Syria, in part because of their own military interventions on opposing sides, it underlined their central role just as questions grow over Washington’s commitment.

A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday Trump wanted U.S. forces out of Syria relatively soon. “We’re not going to immediately withdraw but neither is the president willing to back a long-term commitment,” the official said.

Around 2,000 U.S. troops are deployed in northern Syria on a mission to battle the remnants of an Islamic State force that once controlled the area.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said developments in Syria, where the Syrian army and its allies have driven back rebels in recent years, showed that the United States had “failed to topple the Syrian government” of President Bashar al-Assad.

“They wanted to fuel insecurity in order to maintain their own interests but they have gained no success,” he told a news conference after talks with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. He added, however, that he believed U.S. forces would stay in Syria.

Iran and Russia have both strongly supported the Syrian president, while Turkey backed anti-Assad rebels. Those differences have continued on the ground despite their political cooperation aimed at winding down some of the violence.

Turkey has waged a military campaign to drive Kurdish YPG fighters from northwestern Syria’s Afrin district, while Russian air power and Iran-backed militias have supported Syrian army offensives in the Idlib and Ghouta regions.

Iran’s state television quoted Rouhani as telling Erdogan and Putin that Afrin should be handed over to Syria’s army.

“The developments in Afrin can only be useful if they do not violate Syria’s territorial integrity, and control of these areas should be handed over to the Syrian army,” Rouhani said.</s>The presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia meet on Wednesday for their second tripartite summit in under six months, aiming to speed the peace process for Syria and bolster their influence in the country.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host his Russian and Iranian counterparts Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani in Ankara for a meeting that could have a critical bearing on developments in Syria.

The meeting will be the second such tripartite summit after the first hosted by Putin in November in the Black Sea city of Sochi and will be a new symbol of the increasingly deep cooperation.

The three powers have backed peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana which they argue are a parallel process to support UN-supported discussions in Geneva.

Experts say that Ankara, Moscow and Tehran have quite different interests but have for now decided to team up to take advantage of the waning Western influence in Syria.

Hours before the summit, US President Donald Trump said he wanted to "bring our troops back home" from Syria after indicating last week the US would withdraw from the country "very soon".

Jana Jabbour, professor of political science at Sciences Po university in Paris, said the aim of the summit was to "reorganise and renegotiate the zones of influence in Syria as well as to reflect on the future of Syria's north after US withdrawal".

Turkey drove out Kurdish militia from Afrin city on March 18, two months after it launched an offensive in northern Syria supporting Syrian rebels.

Erdogan has indicated Turkey could extend its operation to the YPG-held town of Manbij as well as Ayn al-Arab (Kobane) and Qamishli, all east of Afrin.

"Erdogan likely wants to use the summit to secure Russian and Iranian support for expanded operations in northern Syria or Iraq," said Elizabeth Teoman, Turkey analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

After bilateral talks with Putin on Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkey and Russia would continue their cooperation "focusing on our common interests" in Syria.

Jabbour said Iran and Russia would give free rein to Turkey in the north against the YPG in exchange for bringing the groups it controls to the negotiating table.

"Turkey remains a key player in the Syrian crisis especially because of the opposition groups it controls. A solution to the crisis is unimaginable without Ankara's contribution," she added.

While Moscow and Tehran support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad politically and militarily, Turkey has repeatedly called for his removal and supported Syrian opposition fighters.

Last year, the powers agreed to set up "de-escalation areas" in western Idlib province, north of Homs province, parts of Deraa and Quneitra provinces in southern Syria and Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, which has come under heavy bombardment.

Cooperation between the three in Syria "may break down at some point", Teoman warned, while issues between Moscow and Turkey could come to the fore over Idlib.

Idlib's civilian infrastructure is largely controlled by the jihadist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.

Turkey is keen to prevent a Russia-backed regime assault on the province home to around 2.5 million people who analysts say would have few places to flee after having already fled areas like Ghouta and Aleppo.

Turkish armed forces have now set up eight observation posts to keep the ceasefire intact but Moscow wants Ankara to also exert influence over the jihadists in control of Idlib.

Teoman said that tensions between Russia and Turkey "will flare up again when the pro-regime coalition refocuses on Idlib province."

Tensions may also be emerging behind the scene between Russia and Iran, with Moscow much more concerned to press for reform under Assad than Tehran.

More than 340,000 people have been killed since the war began following anti-government protests in 2011, while millions have been internally displaced or forced to flee.

Turkey hosts over 3.5 million Syrian refugees and Ankara is keen to avoid a further influx ahead of 2019 elections and also wants to install some refugees in safe zones inside Syria.
The leaders of Iran, Turkey and Russia meet in Ankara. They declare their commitment to achieving a "lasting ceasefire" in Syria.