No meeting between Turkiye president, Syria's Assad: FM says

There will be no meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad at an upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in September, Turkiye’s foreign minister said today.

Speaking to the Haber Global news broadcaster in the capital Ankara, Mevlut Cavusoglu ruled out a meeting between Erdogan and Al-Assad at the summit being held on 15-16 September in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, adding that Al-Assad was “not invited” to the event.

Cavusoglu also underlined that steps must be taken for lasting peace in Syria, adding that the regime should not see the opposition as terrorists.

READ:  The world is bigger than five, says Turkiye’s UN reform campaign

“From the very beginning, Turkiye said that the most important process is the political one,” he said.

Turkiye follows a “results-oriented” policy in Syria, Cavusoglu noted, stressing the importance of the country’s territorial integrity and the need to clear terrorist organisations from it.

His remarks come at a time when Turkish official statements have been reiterating the possibility of restoring relations with the Al-Assad regime. “We must take advanced steps with Syria through which we can spoil many schemes in this region,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. He added that political or diplomatic dialogue cannot be completely abandoned between countries, and such dialogue can and should take place at any time.

READ: As Turkiye moves to reconcile with Assad, the Middle East’s opposition movements now left homeless