20 December 2016, 19:37 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The recent meeting in Moscow of the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran indicates that the United States does not play a significant role in the Syrian crisis negotiations, former CIA operative Robert Baer said on Tuesday.
"This meeting in Moscow between Iran, Turkey and Russia tells us that we are fairly irrelevant in Syria," Baer stated in an interview with CNN.
On December 20, the foreign ministers of the three countries met in Moscow. They emphasized the importance of expanding the ceasefire regime in Syria and announced their willingness to broker a future agreement between Damascus and the opposition.
Baer stated that the United States has lost Turkey and the loss has not been helpful for US foreign policy.
The CIA operative explained that Turkey is "fed up" with the United States because Washington continues to provide arms to Kurdish forces. Baer also noted that Turkey has seen an additional inflow of refugees from Syria, from the city of Aleppo.
The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura announced that the United Nations planned to convene a third round of intra-Syrian talks on February 8, 2017. The last time talks took place was in April.
