Russia, Iran, and Turkey didn’t stop Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad from starting a new major military offensive in his
country — almost certainly condemning tens of thousands to die.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
held a summit in Tehran to discuss the ongoing conflict in Syria. At the
top of their agenda was Idlib,
a northwestern Syrian province and the country’s last rebel stronghold.
Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has threatened to reconquer the province
with a massive, imminent military attack that would put the roughly 3
million people living there directly in harm’s way.
Russia and Iran are Assad’s main backers in the
seven-year civil war, and Turkey supports anti-Assad rebels, so the
three leaders, not surprisingly, had very different views about how to
proceed.
Turkey wanted all sides to sign a peace deal
to stem the fighting before it starts, but Russia and Iran demurred,
instead opting to give Assad a green light to carry out indiscriminate
bombings and a block-by-block takeover of Idlib, the rebel-controlled
province. And Russia and Iran, as they have for years, will almost
certainly support those efforts.
Read more: Idlib: Turkey’s effort to stop mass slaughter in Syria just failed - Vox
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