The warm smiles and handshakes exchanged by the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran in Ankara on Wednesday could be misleading. The points of division among them outnumber their points of agreement. Their interests are contradictory.
To camouflage their differences, the triumvirate shed crocodile tears for the many civilians killed throughout the seven years of civil war in Syria. They paid lip service to the urgent need for humanitarian aid for the wounded and needy and said the millions of people forced from their homes should be allowed to return.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan went even further, lamenting the fates of the people of eastern Ghouta – the Damascus suburb that has been ruthlessly bombarded from the air in recent months – while momentarily "forgetting" that his two summit partners are behind the slaughter.
This is the same Erdogan who this week attacked Israel for having the audacity to defend itself against the Gaza border rioters. He conveniently "forgot" that the Turkish army had just entered and occupied an area in northern Syria, simply to keep the Kurds there away from the Turkish border and stop them from establishing autonomous territorial contiguity.
The summit in Ankara, the second between the three in the past six months, did not convene to discuss the future of Syria or examine ways to rehabilitate it, but to explore the feasibility of dividing it into separate zones of influence. The only thing Erdogan wants is for the Russians and Iranians to provide de facto recognition of Turkey's military presence in northern Syria, and the only thing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani wants is for the Russians not to restrict or prevent his country's efforts to establish a foothold there.
Yet despite the attempt to paint the summit as cooperative and harmonious, we can already see the divisions that have bubbled to the surface. Rouhani explicitly mentioned the need for all foreign forces to leave Syria; he was talking about the Turkish forces. Erdogan responded by saying this would only be possible when "the rebels are expelled." He was referring to the Kurds, who actually spearheaded the victory over Islamic State.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has no intention of giving up his Middle East foothold in Syria, still has not shown any enthusiasm about having to share it with his Turkish and Iranian partners.
Even on the matter of Syrian President Bashar Assad remaining in power, the sides are split. The Turks want him out, the Iranians want him in, and the Russians would not oppose a different ally taking his place.
Naturally, the three summit partners have been able to unite only against the two forces threatening to disrupt their plans to reign freely in Syria: Israel and the United States.
They declared that Israel has "failed" and mocked U.S. President Donald Trump for wanting the Saudis to pay for America's continued presence in Syria.
Israel, admittedly, does not want the U.S. to vacate the region and leave it to be divided up by the trio who conducted the hypocrisy summit in Ankara.
