Turkish FM resumes contact with Kerry as UN ‘officially starts’ Syria peace talks

ANKARA

Reuters Photo (L), AA Photo (R)

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has resumed regular contact with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry, as Syrian peace talks gained some momentum with the U.N. special envoy formally declaring the start of indirect negotiations.

Çavuşoğlu has been accompanying President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during an ongoing Latin America tour that covers Chile, Peru and Ecuador. While in Santiago, the first leg of the tour, Kerry called Çavuşoğlu on Feb. 1 and the two exchanged views on the Geneva peace talks, Turkish diplomatic sources said. 

In last ten days, Çavuşoğlu and Kerry have appeared to be in constant contact over the highly anticipated talks.

Most recently, Çavuşoğlu spoke to both Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on Jan. 29. Earlier, on a visit to Strasbourg to hold talks at the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Çavuşoğlu spoke to both Kerry and Hammond. 

On Jan. 24, the Turkish foreign minister spoke to both Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and discussed the planned talks in Geneva.

Meanwhile, in Rome, nearly two dozen nations, including Turkey, gathered on Feb. 2 to plan their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq and how to choke its rise in Libya.

A delegation led by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu is representing Turkey among twenty-three nations in the wider Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, which will review efforts to regain Syrian and Iraqi territory from the jihadist group and discuss ways to curb its wider influence, notably in Libya.