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Russia’s foreign minister on Wednesday hosted his counterparts from Turkey, Syria and Iran for talks that marked the 'highest-level contact' between Ankara and Damascus since the start of the Syrian civil war over a decade ago.

In his opening speech, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that the meeting would pave the way to drafting a road map for normalising Turkish-Syrian relations.

Lavrov said he sees Moscow’s task as “not only in consolidating politically the progress that has been made, but also in determining general guidelines for further movement.” Russia has spent years trying to help Syrian President Bashar Assad rebuild ties with Turkey and other countries that were fractured in the war, which killed nearly 500,000 people and displaced half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million.