Iran calls for expansion of Syrian regime's sovereignty in Idlib

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif stressed on Wednesday the need to “extend the sovereignty” of the Syrian government over the whole territory, including the province of Idlib, the last opposition bastion where Turkey and Russia recently agreed on a ceasefire. Zarif expressed this position in a teleconference with his Russian counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Turkey's Mevlüt Çavusoglu, the three countries sponsoring the so-called Syrian Astana peace process. 

According to a statement from Iran's Foreign Ministry, the parties agreed to “respect the independence, national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, as well as the separation of terrorists from the opposition,” among other points. They also discussed the recent events in Idlib, the need to lift sanctions, especially given the outbreak of the coronavirus, the humanitarian situation in the Arab country and the return of refugees. 

Zarif, who met two days ago in Damascus with Syrian President Bachar al-Assad, urged “the extension of the Syrian Government's sovereignty over the territorial integrity of the country and the continuation of the fight against terrorism”. During his meeting with al-Assad, he had addressed “Turkey's continued invasion of Syria's sovereignty and territory,” either by “its direct occupation of the territories or by increasing the number of what it calls observation points in Idlib,” according to a statement by the Syrian presidency. 

In Idlib, the last stronghold of the armed opposition to Al-Assad, Moscow and Ankara are coordinating their forces with joint patrols to avoid fighting like that seen last February. Zarif also condemned “the continued aggression of the Zionist regime (Israel) against Syria, which violates Syria's national sovereignty and threatens the peace and stability of the region”. 

On sanctions, the head of Iranian diplomacy insisted that they are “a serious obstacle to fighting the coronavirus” in Syria, where health and diagnostic capacity is very limited due to the war. 

For this reason, he stressed the responsibility of the international community and the United Nations to lift these coercive measures imposed by the United States, the European Union and Arab countries from 2011 on bank transfers, the oil industry, as well as political figures. 

The Iranian Foreign Minister supported the efforts of the UN to facilitate talks between the Syrian parties within the framework of the Constitutional Committee, as well as the acceleration of the return of refugees and humanitarian assistance to the Arab country. 

The Astana process, named after the Kazakh capital where the first meeting was held in January 2017, is a Russian, Iranian and Turkish initiative, with the first two supporting the Al-Assad regime and Turkey backing the opposition, to seek a negotiated solution to the bloody conflict in Syria.  

The foreign ministers of the three countries stressed the need to continue tripartite consultations at all levels, including holding the sixth summit of the Astana process in Iran, once the coronavirus pandemic is stabilised.