"The whole world is watching this meeting. I hope, that the hopes will be met," Erdogan said, while opening the summit.
The four leaders are also expected to be joined by UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. The four-way summit is an entirely new format of talks on the war-torn country, which has endured years-long conflict.
The meeting is all about testing the waters and trying to bring about different formats of talks on Syria, as if the leaders were to "synchronize watches" rather than reach a breakthrough, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Similar opinion was expressed by Germany, with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stating that the summit effectively brings different sides together for the very first time."There are Russians and Turks, who have been at the same format of talks with Iran. And on the other side, there are French and us, who partake in the so-called 'Friends of Syria' group," Maas said ahead of the event, adding that having a "joint conversation" was a viable idea.Turkey, which is hosting the summit, appears to be a little bit more optimistic about the high-profile event. According to the spokesman for Turkey's President, Ibrahim Kalin, the leaders are expected to discuss prospects of political settlement in Syria, and might agree on some sort of reconciliation roadmap and the main ideas for the new Syrian Constitution.
Setting up the committee to draft a new Syrian constitution is a priority, but eliminating the remaining "radical elements" in the country remains an important objective, Russia's Vladimir Putin said at the Istanbul summit."While the degree of violence in Syria has been greatly reduced, elimination of all the radical elements is still an important task," President Vladimir Putin said, speaking after the four-way Syria summit with leaders of Turkey, France and Germany. "We cannot allow the battle-hardened bandits to carry on with their illicit activities, to create "sleeper cells" in our countries, recruit supporters and spread extremist ideology and terror."Turkey is sticking to its commitments over the Idlib ceasefire deal, Putin said, but added that Ankara has not yet been able to force all the radicals in the region to comply with the agreement. Russia's leader expressed hopes that the ceasefire will be fully implemented in the future.
If the terrorists continue to launch attacks from Idlib, Moscow reserves the right to provide armed support to the Syrian government to clear the region by force, Putin stated.
While the Idlib agreement is very important, it still is a "temporary measure," he said. Lasting peace can be only brought through a political solution, the Russian president stressed, adding that the committee to draft a new Syrian constitution is expected to begin its work before the end of the year.
"The fate of the country must be ultimately decided by the Syrian people," he added.
"Negotiations are underway between Jordan, the United States and Russia with an aim to find a final solution to the problem of the Rukban camp, ensuring the conditions for the voluntary return of its residents to their towns and villages liberated from the Islamic State [terrorist group, banned in Russia]."Jordan continues to provide medical aid and water to the Syrian refugees residing in the camp, the minister added. However, Safadi underlined that
"the residents of Rukban are Syrians who are residing on the territory of Syria even though Jordan had provided humanitarian aid for them through its territory when there was no other option. The road to Rukban now exists from the Syrian territory, humanitarian aid can be delivered from Syria itself, so ensuring the needs of the camp is the responsibility of Syria and the United Nations, not Jordan."
A UN-Red Cross mission to bring aid to displaced people in the Rukban camp in south Syria was cancelled over lack of security guarantees in the US-controlled area, the Russian military said Saturday.
"The inability of the US side to live up to its commitment to provide security in the 55-kilometer [34-mile] area around its base in At Tanf stopped the convoy from going. UN officials said the delivery had been cancelled over lack of security guarantees," Lt. Gen. Vladimir Savchenko said in a bulletin.
Savchenko said the area around At Tanf was swarming with "a large number of armed and uncontrolled militants who can stage any manner of provocation," making shipments through the zone to the camp on the border with Jordan "extremely dangerous" for aid workers.
Ahmad Qazem, the head of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, told Sputnik last week that 14 people had died in the camp because of a dire humanitarian situation. According to the rights activists, the situation in the camp had been complicated by the closure of a nearby border crossing.
The Syrian authorities have repeatedly stated that the territory around At Tanf occupied by the US-led Western coalition was a haven for radical groups, including for militants of the Daesh terrorist group, which organized a large-scale attack on the settlements of the Suwayda province from the side of At Tanf in September.
Comment: The AfD is riding the current of ant-immigrant sentiment in Germany, but Germans would do well to examine the party's platform as a whole. There are some disturbing elements and echoes of Germany's darkest history.