On May 21, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a trilateral phone discussion about Syria and Ukraine.
Escalatory fighting over Idlib was one of the issues that dominated the agenda. The Syrian regime has lately been engaged in a large-scale military assault against the terrorist groups entrenched in the area, with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham being by far the most active and dangerous one.
France’s posture on this issue, beyond its moral commitments, is based upon three pillars: the Sochi agreement signed in September 2018 between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan; the need to boost the formation of the Constitutional Committee; and adjunction of talks between the Small Group on Syria — composed of France, the UK, Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt — with the Astana forum presided over by Russia, Turkey and Iran.
Paris remains firmly opposed to any military solution in Idlib, and has called on all the stakeholders to stick to the Sochi agreement of September 2018 to safeguard this de-escalation zone. This has been clearly stated since the quadrilateral summit held in October 2018 in Istanbul that brought together Merkel, Macron, Putin and Erdogan upon the invitation of the latter.
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