Meetings with Turkey must be coordinated with Russia: Al-Assad
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Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad affirms that meetings with the Turkish side must be based on coordination and prior planning between Syria and Russia in order to be fruitful.
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Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad and Russian President's special envoy Alexander Lavrentyev
Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad said, on Thursday, that a Moscow-brokered rapprochement with Turkey should aim for "the end of occupation" by Ankara of Syrian territory.
"In order for the meetings with the Turkish side to be fruitful, they must be based on coordination and prior planning between Syria and Russia," he added.
The remarks came following Al-Assad's meeting with Russian President's special envoy Alexander Lavrentyev and an accompanying delegation during which the Syrian President affirmed that the goals of the meetings stem from the national constants and principles of the state and the people based on ending the occupation and stopping support for terrorism.
President Al-Assad also reaffirmed Syria's position in support of the Russian military operation in Donbass.
In the same context, Syrian sources revealed to Al Mayadeen that the meeting between the Syrian Foreign Minister with his Turkish counterpart is not scheduled as Damascus still has not approved of holding it.
The same sources added that Damascus refused to schedule the meeting before setting its goals, at the forefront of which is the withdrawal of the Turkish army from all Syrian territories.
The sources also stressed that "Damascus is not interested in presenting the card of making concessions” to Ankara.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he might possibly meet with his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad in early February.
On his part, Lavrentyev praised Syria's constructive views from the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine, noting that many countries around the world now believe Russia will win.
“Washington has failed to alienate Syria and Russia despite all the pressures by the US and its allies,” he said.
The top Russian diplomat also placed considerable importance on making greater use of global trends, emphasizing that Russia welcomed the joint tripartite meetings between Syrian, Russian, and Turkish defense ministers.
The stepped-up diplomacy comes after a current rapprochement between Turkey and Syria under Russian meditation.
Read next: Turkey to withdraw from northern Syria if stability achieved: Minister
