Source: Al Arabiya
Turkey hopes a summit with Iranian and Russian leaders in Tehran on Friday will avert a Syrian government offensive on the rebel-held Idlib enclave and prevent a new influx of refugees to Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying.
Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, resumed air strikes against insurgents in Idlib on Tuesday following weeks of bombardment and shelling by pro-Syrian government forces in an apparent prelude to a full-scale offensive against the rebels’ last major enclave.
The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran are due to meet on Friday in Iran and are expected to discuss the situation in northwestern Syria. Turkey, which backs rebels against Assad, has said an offensive on Idlib would be disastrous. Ankara is sheltering 3.5 million Syrian refugees.
“We will take the situation to a positive point at this summit …. God willing, we will be able to hinder the Syrian government’s extremism in the region,” the Hurriyet newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying overnight.
Read more at: https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2018/09/05/Turkey-s-Erdogan-hopes-Tehran-summit-will-avert-Idlib-offensive.html