Russia says will host trilateral leaders' summit with Turkey, Iran in early 2019

Moscow will early next year host the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey to discuss the Syrian conflict, Russia's deputy foreign minister said Friday, after the United States announced it was withdrawing troops from the country.

"It's our turn to host the summit... around the first week of the year. This will depend on the schedules of the presidents," Mikhail Bogdanov was cited as saying by Interfax news agency.

The meeting will be the latest step in the Astana peace process — set up in early 2017 by Russia and Iran, who support the regime of Bashar Assad, and opposition backer Turkey.

The Astana process was launched after Russia's military intervention in Syria tipped the balance in the regime's favour. It has gradually eclipsed an earlier U.N.-sponsored negotiations framework known as the Geneva process.

The last meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin, Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took place in Iran in September with the fate of the opposition-held Idlib province dominating the agenda.

U.S. President Donald Trump in a shock announcement recently said he was pulling out some 2,000 American soldiers from Syria, claiming Daesh terrorists had been defeated.