Turkish Foreign Minister: We seek to arrange a meeting between Erdogan and Assad
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirmed that he is seeking to arrange a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al Assad, noting that talking about concrete details is still early.
Fidan said in an interview with Sky News Arabia, “Our president made this proposal and I am working to achieve it, but it is too early to talk about anything specific”.
Fidan pointed to the need to confront the PKK/YPG and work to return oil facilities and energy resources seized by this group to the Syrian people.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is interested in improving relations between Türkiye and Syria, in response to a question about Moscow’s readiness for a meeting between Erdogan and Assad.
Sabah newspaper, cited a source, reported that the first meeting between Erdogan and Assad in years may be held in Moscow next August, and the source claimed that Russian President, Vladimir Putin, may act as a mediator in the negotiations, however, a Turkish diplomatic source quickly denied the report.
On July 15, Assad expressed his willingness to meet with Erdogan if it met Syria’s national interests.
Earlier, Erdogan stated that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and his colleagues are working on a plan to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus and arrange negotiations between the presidents of Türkiye and Syria.
He added that Fidan was tasked with organizing the meeting, possibly in a third country.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry responded that the normalization of relations between Syria and Türkiye must be based on a return to the situation that existed before 2011.
