Russian diplomat: Assad’s media behavior during his visit to Moscow reveals his unawareness of Russia’s priorities with expectations of postponing the Syrian-Turkish rapprochement efforts until after the Turkish elections

Russian diplomat says that the Syrian President’s visit to Moscow brought no significant results to the efforts that Russia is undertaking to bring Syrian-Turkish relationships back on track.

The Kremlin’s comment on the results of the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Syrian President, Bashar al Assad, shows the extent of the discrepancy in understanding the nature of the relationship and the priorities of the next stage.

Some Russian diplomat says there is astonishment at Assad’s media behavior, and even his behavior during the round of negotiations, and it was clear that he wasn’t ready to delve into the principles of a political solution.

Assad appears to be unaware of the importance of the Russian steps in launching the path of normalization with Ankara, given that this step puts in one integrated issue a package of priority issues that start with refugee issues, and don’t end with ensuring the security and sovereignty of Syria in its border areas, which opens up final settlement.

Russian diplomat pointed out that Assad doesn’t show an awareness that the situation in the de-escalation zone in Idlib isn’t stable, and that coordination with Türkiye is a must as a basic guarantee to arrange this matter later.

The clear message was conveyed to the Syrian leadership of the need to deal seriously and positively with the issues on the table, and based on that, it was agreed that Syrian and Turkish officials would start meetings in the near future.

Meanwhile, and after the end of Syrian President Visit to Russia, Russian officials believed that the path of normalization between the Syria and Türkiye didn’t stop, but it will be postponed until after the Turkish elections.

The Turkish government’s refusal to respond to the statements of the Syrian President regarding the condition for the withdrawal of Turkish forces from northern Syria indicates that the two sides froze the normalization process, but didn’t stop it completely.

The matter of fact that both Turkish and Syrian governments didn’t abandon plans to normalize relations, but at the meantime the efforts will take a break for a while, due to the approaching date of the Turkish elections.

On the other hand, the inability of Erdogan’s victory to be guaranteed, it can be assumed that the both sides have taken a break to develop new mechanisms for interaction.

The time now isn’t appropriate to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus, and with the possibility of the Turkish opposition winning the elections could significantly change the format of the talks between the governments of both countries.