Preserving Syria’s unity, integrity, big step forward: Analyst

The Iranian, Russian and Turkish presidents have held a trilateral meeting on the Syria crisis in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The talks between Hassan Rouhani, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan come as Iran, Russia and Turkey are acting as the guarantors of a ceasefire that took effect in Syria late last year. In their joint statement after the talks, Putin, Rouhani and Erdogan reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria. Press TV has talked to Adam Garrie, managing editor of theduran.com, as well as Brent Budowsky, columnist of The Hill, to discuss the outcome of the tripartite meeting.

Garrie believes Iran, Russia and Turkey’s commitment to preserve Syria's unity and territorial integrity is a “big step forward” which has never been taken by other players in the Syrian conflict –including the United States and Saudi Arabia.

“First of all, there would be no balkanization, no division or bifurcation of the country. All the parties – Turkey, Russia and Iran – agreed that Syria must remain a unitary state and this of course brings me to the second important issue, federalization was not mentioned today which can only be a good thing. Dialog yes but federalization clearly absent which effectively at least for now means no,” he said.

PressTV-Iran, Russia, Turkey presidents hold Syria talks

The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey hold a trilateral meeting on the Syria crisis.

He further emphasized that Iran and Russia’s presence in Syria was at Damascus’ request unlike “totally illegitimate” US-led military campaign in the country.

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant and terrorist groups since March 2011.

Russia and Iran are the main international backers of the Syrian government in its battle against foreign-backed terrorists.

At Damascus’ request, Iran has been providing military advisory support to the Syrian military in its counterterrorism operations.

Russia has been also carrying out an aerial campaign in Syria in coordination with Damascus since September 2015 to further boost the Syrian military’s anti-terror fight.

The US has been conducting airstrikes against what it says are Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a United Nations mandate.

Meanwhile, Brent Budowsky, the other panelist on the program, opined that there needs to be a Pan-Syrian dialogue which would include all the parties in the agreement in order to bring peace and stability to the country.

He also noted the United States and its allies can offer aid and assistance "to make life better for all Syrians", adding that they can contribute "a significant amount of money" to improve the economy of the war-torn country.

The analyst further stated he is not optimistic about the outcome of the tripartite meeting but expressed hope that Iran, Russia and Turkey could reach a “permanent agreement” that would bring peace and prosperity to Syria.  

Garrie disagreed with Budowsky’s comments, saying that the United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel would only “obstruct” the road to peace given the fact that they were the “originators” and “financiers” of the war in Syria.

However, he agreed with the idea of a Pan-Syrian dialog to create greater unity among Syrians.  

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