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TEHRAN, October 28 - The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France and Germany Saturday called for a ceasefire around the last major terrorist-held bastion of Idlib in Syria to be preserved.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The four nations “stressed the importance of a lasting ceasefire” according to a statement read by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the end of a major summit in Istanbul.
Erdogan, along with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel met to try and find a lasting solution to the Syrian conflict.
During a press conference on Saturday after the meeting, Putin said a constitutional committee for Syria should start work in order to help put an end to the years-long bloody conflict in the Arab country, adding that Moscow would actively take part in that process.
The committee is expected to include 150 members: 50 chosen by Damascus, 50 by the opposition and the final 50 by de Mistura. It will also include civil society representatives, religious and tribal leaders, experts and women.
The Russian president also told the joint press conference that he hoped that Ankara would soon finish creating a demilitarized zone in Syria’s northern province of Idlib, the last major terrorist-held bastion in Syria.
Erdogan also said after the top-level summit that the participants discussed the return of refugees to Syria and agreed that the returns should be voluntary.
The French president, meanwhile, said that the international community would be watching to make sure that ceasefire agreed in Idlib will be long lasting.
“We will all be extremely vigilant to ensure that these commitments are met and that the ceasefire is stable and sustainable,” Macron told reporters after the high-level summit.
Merkel also said that a solution to the Syria conflict cannot simply be military and must include a political process under the auspices of the United Nations that envisages free elections as a goal.
“At the end of this political process, there must be free elections to which all Syrians have access – including the diaspora,” she told the news conference.
Source: Al-Manar
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