Russian FM expects to discuss Syria escalation with Turkish, Iranian counterparts on Fri

MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expects to meet with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi and Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Doha on Friday to discuss the ongoing escalation in Syria.

"We are very much concerned. And when this happened, with Aleppo and surroundings, I had a conversation with the Turkish minister of foreign affairs and with Iranian colleague. We agreed to try to meet this week," Lavrov said in an interview with U.S. journalist Tucker Carlson.

"We, as ministers of foreign affairs, would discuss the situation, hopefully, this coming Friday. And the military of all three countries and the security people are in contact with each other," he said.

As reported, Lavrov is currently in Qatar, which is hosting a political conference.

"We would like to discuss the need to come back to strict implementation of the deals on Idlib area, because Idlib de-escalation zone was the place from where the terrorists moved to take Aleppo," Lavrov said.

"The arrangements reached in 2019 and 2020 provided for our Turkish friends to control the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone and to separate the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [banned in Russia], former Nusra [banned in Russia], from the opposition, which is non-terrorist and which cooperates with Turkey," he said.

In addition, it is necessary to discuss the reopening of the Damascus-Aleppo road, which has now been fully seized by terrorists as well, he said.

When asked who supports the forces that have seized Aleppo, Lavrov said, "We have some information. We would like to discuss with all our partners in this process the way to cut the channels of financing and arming them."

"The information which is being floated and it's in the public domain mentions among others the Americans, the Brits. Some people say that Israel is interested in making this situation aggravate. So that Gaza is not under very close scrutiny," he said.

"It's a complicated game. Many actors are involved. I hope that the context which we are planning for this week will help stabilize the situation," Lavrov said.