Recent diplomatic developments have led to a "potentially important juncture" in efforts to advance the political process on Syria, according to the U.N. special envoy for Syria.

"This renewed attention on Syria is very important if it can act as a circuit breaker and unlock long-stalled efforts to move the political process forward," Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.

He said they have seen renewed diplomatic attention on Syria in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 earthquakes, referring to the Astana players — Russia, Türkiye and Iran — and new openings of engagement between Arab countries and the Syrian regime.

After Feb. 6, regime leader Bashar Assad agreed to open additional border crossings for international aid to cross from Türkiye into opposition-held northwest Syria, while the United States and European countries relaxed some of their sanctions on Damascus.

In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia, which once backed Syrian opposition groups fighting to oust Assad, sent its Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan to Damascus for the first time since the kingdom cut ties with the Assad regime more than a decade ago. Assad, with the help of his main allies Iran and Russia, later regained control over much of Syria, and Saudi Arabia has said in recent months that isolating him was not working.

"With renewed attention on Syria, particularly from the region, that could assist our efforts in advancing a political solution to this conflict in line with Resolution 2254," Pedersen said.

"But for this renewed attention to help unlock progress, many actors will need to take concrete steps, not just one set of actors."

U.N. aid agency official Lisa Doughten said the current scale of humanitarian need in Syria is "unprecedented" and the Feb. 6 earthquakes added more death and destruction to parts of northern Syria already worn down by more than a decade of civil war.

"Even before the earthquake, 15.3 million people – more than half of the total population – required humanitarian assistance and protection support. This number, I fear, only stands to grow," she said.

"The protection needs provoked by the earthquakes are enormous."

Turkish Ambassador to the U.N. Sedat Önal also pointed out increasing signs of a tendency toward greater engagement in the region following the disaster.

''We think that every initiative is important and valuable, as far as it is part and parcel of a holistic and coordinated approach to finding viable solutions to the existing problems through a credible political process,'' he said.

''We hope that this can open a window of opportunity, and it can be seized by all stakeholders,'' he added.

Türkiye-Syria rapprochement

The Astana format is a peace process launched in 2017 to establish a cease-fire and bring conflicts under control in Syria. Officials from all sides, Ankara, Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, periodically convene to consult on a solution and address general issues in the war-torn country but to little avail.

A thaw in ties between Ankara and Damascus following the earthquakes has also tipped the regional balance in a more positive direction. With Moscow striving to open a channel of dialogue between Türkiye and the Assad regime, the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of the four countries assembled twice in the past six months.

Any normalization between Ankara and Damascus would reshape the Syrian war since Turkish military and tactical backing has been vital to sustaining moderate Syrian opposition in their last significant territorial foothold in the northwest. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself indicated he could meet Assad to smooth out the strain. However, Assad has preconditioned high-level talks on ending Turkish presence in Syrian territories.

Ankara has thousands of troops in northern Syria where it has been fighting against terror groups like the PKK and its local branch YPG, which often attacks both Turkish land and local residents. The terrorists have been controlling much of the region, including Syrian natural resources like oil wells in northeastern provinces, since Assad’s forces withdrew in 2012, a marked obstacle to establishing territorial integrity in the country.

Most recently, defense ministers of four countries met in Moscow for what has been described as "fruitful and positive" talks.

"As always, we underlined that we respect Syria’s sovereignty rights and its territorial integrity and that the only reason we are present in Syria is to fight terrorist organizations including the PKK/YPG and Daesh," Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters Wednesday.

The safe return of displaced Syrians was on the agenda, as well, he said, noting that Ankara and Damascus could cooperate on the matter.

Türkiye is home to 3.7 million refugees from Syria, according to government data.