The deputy foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Iran and Russia will meet in Moscow in April, Turkish and Iranian officials said today to discuss the situation in Syria.

After years of feuding, Syrian and Turkish officials met last year in the first attempt to normalize relations at the urging of Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Türkiye backs armed opposition in Syria’s 12-year civil war.

This month, however, Assad ruled out a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan until Turkish troops, which Damascus considers occupied, withdraw from northern Syria.

The situation on the ground will be discussed at a two-day meeting of deputy ministers on April 3-4 in Moscow, the Turkish official said. “This meeting will be a continuation of contacts at the ministerial level that began during the normalization process,” the source added. At the same time, he clarified that no “important decisions” are expected, since this meeting is considered “technical” and not ministerial.

In December, Russia hosted a meeting of the defense ministers of Syria and Turkey. Initially, the trilateral talks were then expanded to include another Assad ally, Iran, which has publicly supported a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus. The foreign ministers of the four countries were supposed to meet this month, but the scheduled meeting has been postponed.

A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would take place in Moscow in the first week of April. The Syrian source also confirmed that the meeting would take place “soon,” without specifying when.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters.