President Bashar al-Assad estimated Thursday that the Syrian-Turkish meetings in progress, under the aegis of Russia, should have as their objective "
the end of the Turkish occupation
" of Syrian territory "
to be fruitful
", according to a press release from the presidency in Damascus.
This is the first comment from Bashar al-Assad, who received Alexander Lavrentiev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy on Syria, about the recent meetings between Turkish and Syrian officials after a break of more than a decade.
Necessary coordination
A tripartite meeting notably took place in December in Moscow between the Turkish, Syrian and Russian Defense Ministers, the first since the beginning of the war in Syria in 2011. The Syrian President considered that "
these tripartite meetings, so that they are successful, must be based on prior coordination and planning between Syria and Russia
”, and aim to “
end the (Turkish) occupation in Syria and support for terrorism
”.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is in Rwanda, said on Thursday that a meeting of foreign ministers from the three countries would be held "
as soon as possible, maybe early February
".
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In mid-December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had indicated that he could meet his Syrian counterpart, with whom he had good relations before 2011. A neighbor of Syria, Turkey has for more than a decade been the political and military support the largest of the Syrian opposition, including Islamist formations, considered "
terrorists
" by Damascus.
Turkey has launched three offensives on Syrian soil since 2016 against Kurdish forces in the north, which have allowed it to control a border strip, an "
occupation
" denounced by Damascus.