MOSCOW — Thoughts about loyalty, commitment and honesty seem to be pricking the minds of officials involved in Syria peace talks: Turkey’s (few) shared sensibilities with the United States versus Ankara’s loyalty to Iran and Russia; America’s loyalty to armed Kurdish groups versus its promises to Turkey; and everyone’s commitment to peace talks held in Astana, Kazakhstan, versus those taking place in Geneva.

On April 29, the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran — the three countries acting as guarantors of the Astana talks — met to discuss Syrian developments for the third time in six weeks and for the first time since the US-led strikes on Syria in mid-April.

Formally, the meeting was mainly about preparing for the ninth round of Syrian peace talks in Astana. But considering Turkey’s support for the US-led attacks, Moscow and Tehran were preoccupied with gauging Ankara’s loyalty to the trio and ensuring the strength of the three-party alliance.

“We agreed to hold this extraordinary meeting at the level of foreign ministers of the Astana format’s countries to discuss this rather complex — highly complex, to be honest — situation in Syria and around it,” Russia's Sergey Lavrov said, opening the talks.