Turkey and Russia will cooperate to establish a hospital in Syria’s Tel Abyad to give treatment to those escaping Eastern Ghouta, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement.
Speaking during a news conference on Wednesday alongside his Russian and Iranian counterparts – Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani – after a summit over Syrian issue, Erdogan said Turkish and Russian armed forces are ready to coordinate to build the medical facility.
Turkey, Russia and Iran also said that they were already committed to achieve a “lasting ceasefire” in Syria, in a joint statement issued following their meeting held in the Turkish capital of Ankara.
The three countries reaffirmed their overall commitment to cooperate for “the achievement of a lasting ceasefire between the conflicting parties”, the statement said.
A journalist who was at the meeting, said that after the meeting the three leaders expressed their increase in hope for peaceful solution in the Syrian crisis in light of the latest achievements after their trilateral talks.
“These are the three parties who have the highest level of influence over what is happening in Syria. However, ironically, the Syrian government or opposition was not present in this meeting where the Syria’s fate is decided on,” he said.
“The leaders revisited their achievements they have reached inside Syria through their dialogue in the last few months.”
Iran and Russia who are the main backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Turkey, which lends support to the moderate opposition, have been in close cooperation and collaboration through a series of talks with the aim of finding a solution to the Syrian conflict since last year.
Various so-called “de-escalation zones” were agreed among the three powers in Syria due to the multiple rounds of talks throughout 2017.
Syrian government forces are reportedly very close to taking full control of the opposition stronghold of Eastern Ghouta which is near the capital, Damascus.
The control over the suburb can be termed to be a major development in Assad’s efforts to reclaim lost territories in the seven-year war.
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