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ISTANBUL, Oct. 27-- As Turkey prepares to host a summit on Syria on Saturday, analysts are not hopeful that the assembly of Russian, Turkish, German and French leaders will pave the way for major progress toward a political settlement of the conflict in the Arab country. "The quadripartite summit should not be expected to produce any concrete results," Cahit Armagan Dilek, head of the Ankara-based think tank 21st Century Turkey Institute, told Xinhua. This meeting has lost much of its meaning after Ankara and Moscow reached a deal on Idlib, the last major stronghold for Islamist rebels in Syria, said Dilek, who is also a former staff officer in the Turkish military. In mid-September, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin concluded a deal on a political settlement in Idlib. Idlib has been a major concern for Ankara as it fears a Syrian army offensive against the rebels could send flocks of refugees toward its borders. Some of the so-called moderate rebel groups in Idlib have the backing of Turkey, which argues that they should be part of the peace efforts and have a place in Syria's future. "I don't expect a big result to come out of the summit," Hasan Koni, an international relations analyst, said, explaining that countries which have much say on the Syrian issue such as the United States, Iran and Israel, are not included in the summit. The United States has a major military presence in areas under Kurdish militia control in eastern and northeastern Syria along the Turkish border. Despite Ankara's vehement objection, Washington has continued to supply weapons to the Kurdish militia, an act seen by Turkey as a major national security threat. | 
