Won’t meet Erdogan
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he will only meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if Turkey withdraws troops from northern Syria, according to a Russian media interview published yesterday.
His comments come one day after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is seeking to repair ties between Erdogan and Assad severed after the Syrian war broke out in 2011.
"(Any meeting) is linked to our reaching the point when Turkey is ready -- fully and without any uncertainty -- for a complete withdrawal from Syrian territory," Assad told Russia's state-run RIA-Novosti news agency.
The Syrian leader, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, demanded that alongside a withdrawal Turkey end "support for terrorism", a reference to rebel groups that control regions of northern Syria.
"This is the only way in which my meeting with Erdogan could take place," Assad was cited as saying.
"What significance would any kind of meeting have -- and why organise it -- if it doesn't lead to a conclusion of the war in Syria?" he added.
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