Erdogan to host Putin, Macron, Merkel to discuss Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to host Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as his French peer Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks over Syria later this month. 

The summit would be held in Istanbul on October 27, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin was cited by state-run Anadolu news agency as saying on Friday.

The event would seek efforts to find a "long-lasting solution" to the crisis in Syria as well as the situation in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, he added.

Erdogan had previously planned to host the international summit in September.

Idlib is the last stronghold of Takfiri terrorists and militants in Syria which has successfully ended their dominance in other provinces.

In September, the Syrian government was about to stage a wholesale counter-terrorism operation in the province. Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, and Turkey, which sides with anti-Damascus militants, however, announced a plan to create a de-militarized zone in the province, where the outfits would be disarmed and ultimately ordered to withdraw.

The plan prevented the Syrian operation.

The Istanbul summit is to go underway as al-Qaeda-lined Takfiris and even Turkish-backed militants in Idlib have said they would refuse to either hand over their weapons or leave the area.

PressTV-Syria: Takfiris refuse to leave Idlib buffer zone

Al-Qaeda-lined Takfiri terrorists say they refuse to either leave a planned buffer zone in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib or hand over their weapons.

Recently, the groups started targeting neighboring Syrian provinces of Aleppo and Hama with heavy mortar fire, killing several Syrian soldiers.

Syria has made it clear that the Turkish-Russian initiative in Idlib was only "temporary," and that the province would ultimately fall back under government control.

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