The meeting of the Russian, Iranian and Syrian top diplomats turned out to be an important tool for coordination of actions between the three countries that are on the same side

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. The trilateral meeting of the Russian, Iranian and Syrian foreign ministers that took place in Moscow on October 28 was an important landmark that allowed to coordinate positions on a number of issues including the Syria settlement, experts said at a round table dedicated to the recent talks.

"The three countries have common ground as well as a history of successful bilateral cooperation between Russia and Syria, Iran and Syria, Russia and Iran, but there hasn�t been enough trilateral cooperation so far," an expert in the history of the Middle East and North Africa from the Higher School of Economics Grigori Lukyanov said.

According to Lukyanov, the parties coordinated their positions on such important issues as the US presidential elections and the operation to free Iraq�s Mosul, in addition they assessed the position of the Kurds. "Both Russia and Iran are in search for new formats of cooperation," he said noting that the parties were trying to find common approaches to the Afghan issue as well as other problems.

"The trilateral meeting is a significant landmark," a leading researcher of the Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies at Russia�s Academy of Science Boris Dolgov noted. "After the meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time said that the US wasn�t fulfilling and was not going to fulfill its obligations." "This is the correct assessment proving that the possibility of cooperation with the US is no more than an illusion," Dolgov said. "The Russian authorities need to realize that such cooperation is impossible, at least for now."

The meeting of the Russian, Iranian and Syrian top diplomats "turned out to be an important tool for coordination of actions between the three countries that are on the same side," Deputy Director of the Institute for Forecasting and Political Settlement Alexander Kuznetsov said. In his opinion, "these countries� views on the main issues converge." According to the expert, the issues include the territorial integrity of Syria as well as Bashar al-Assad�s staying in power for the interim period.

By TASS