UN to host Syria talks as powers focus on Idlib

GENEVA - The UN peace envoy for Syria will host Iran, Russia and Turkey for talks on drafting a new Syrian constitution on September 11-12, a United Nations spokeswoman said Friday.

Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura has been tasked with setting up a committee to write a new constitution for the war-ravaged country.

The main foreign powers backing the project are Syrian government allies Russia and Iran, as well as Turkey, which supports some opposition groups.

Representatives of the three nations will meet de Mistura over two days at the UN's European headquarters in Geneva, spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told reporters.

De Mistura has said he wants to have the constitutional committee in place before world leaders meet at the General Assembly in New York in late September.

That will likely require further talks, including with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, but Vellucci said she had no details of additional meetings next month.

De Mistura's previous efforts to negotiate an end to the Syrian conflict have achieved no breakthroughs.

Eye on Idlib

The announcement of the coming talks comes as the focus in Syria's war shifts toward the last remaining stronghold of opposition against Assad.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Friday that seeking a military solution in Syria's last rebel-held province of Idlib would lead to disaster.

"A military solution there will cause catastrophe," Cavusoglu said at a press conference in Moscow with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Cavusoglu said that Russia and Turkey should work to separate opposition groups from "terrorists" in the northwestern province.

Lavrov indicated that Moscow was losing patience with the Idlib militants, whom the Kremlin has accused of targeting government positions as well as Russia's Syria military base from there. 

He said that Moscow did not expect militants to use the province as a base from which they could attack the government when Turkey, Iran and Russia originally negotiated ceasefire zones in Syria.

Lavrov said the situation was "multi-faceted" and called for separating out "the healthy opposition from terrorist structures."

"When the de-escalation zone was created in Idlib, no one proposed using it for terrorists to hide behind the civilian population like a human shield.

"Especially as they aren't just lying low there. Raids constantly come from there and firing on the positions of the Syrian army."

He said he was sure Turkish and Russian presidents would "talk in detail on this topic."

Speculation is increasing that there could be a Russian-backed government assault on Idlib, home to Syria's last major rebel stronghold. Most of the rebel forces that were defeated in other parts of Syria were given the option to relocate to Idlib province in a series of evacuation deals brokered with the regime.

The province now holds a large proportion of Syria's remaining rebel forces.

As talk of a new government offensive swirls, the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, known as Syria's al-Qaeda affiliate, vowed to fight on there.

Abu Mohammed al-Golani said on Wednesday that state-sponsored surrenders of rebel groups won't happen in Idlib like they did elsewhere, because they would be considered "treason". Golani's jihadist group controls more than half of Idlib while a string of rebel outfits hold most of the rest.

Turkey, which supports some of the opposition groups along its border with Syria, has mediated cease-fire deals in several areas in Syria, including Idlib.

Cavusoglu said that Turkey nevertheless considers "it is very important that those radical groups, terrorists are rendered ineffective".

"It's also important for Turkey because they are on the other side of our border. They pose a threat to us first."

Analysts say any regime offensive will probably be limited to a small area of Idlib, around the town of Jisr al-Shughur, with a deal between Russia and Turkey likely to determine the fate of the rest of the province.

"Our goal is to alleviate the concerns of our Russian counterparts and get rid of the terrorists in that area," Cavusoglu said.

Tension over Hmeimim

Analysts say Russia is convinced that drones targeting its military base come from rebel positions in Jisr al Shughur.

Drone attacks on Hmeimim airbase have increased since last month but all were shot down, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

The Britain-based Observatory reported 13 assaults in July and five this month, out of a total of 23 since the start of the year. In such attacks, small unmanned aircraft have been loaded with explosives.

But "most of the drones are downed by Russian or Syrian air defences before reaching their target", Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The attackers "are sending a message to Russia that they are able to directly target the main centre for Russian forces in Syria", Abdel Rahman said.

Hmeimim lies just west of Idlib within the adjacent Latakia province, a regime stronghold on the Mediterranean coast that is home to Assad's Alawite clan. 

On Thursday, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed "terrorists" for the attacks, using Damascus and Moscow's term for both rebels and jihadists.

"The drone attacks they have launched have become regular in Hmeimim. Our air defences have downed 45 of them," she said.

Sam Heller, from the International Crisis Group think-tank, said that "the Russians are convinced that the drones that have targeted their airbase... are emanating from the area around Jisr al-Shughur".

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.