Turkey hosts summit to resolve Syria conflict

ISTANBUL: The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany met on Saturday to try to find a political solution to Syria’s devastating civil war, provide access to humanitarian aid and salvage a fragile ceasefire in the country’s last major rebel-held bastion.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Russia’s Vladimir Putin, France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the gathering on the Syrian conflict, in which more than 360,000 people have been killed since 2011.

“The eyes of the world are on us today... I hope we will act with a sincere and constructive understanding and will not fail to meet their expectations,” Erdogan said as he opened the summit in Istanbul.

The talks come a day after seven civilians were killed by Syrian regime artillery fire in the northwestern province of Idlib, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the highest death toll since a ceasefire was reached there last month.

Russia, which supports the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, and Turkey, which backs the rebels, agreed to create a buffer zone around Idlib, but violence has escalated dramatically leading up to the summit.

Turkey and Russia have held talks with Iran on the Syrian conflict in efforts that have often been greeted with suspicion in the West, but Saturday’s summit will be the first to include the European Union’s two most significant national leaders.

Erdogan met briefly with Merkel, Putin and Macron before the summit began, and the four leaders are expected to issue a joint statement ahead of individual press conferences.