Reuters reports on Syria's Assad resisting Russia's efforts to broker summit in Türkiye

WORLD  04 December 2022 - 15:02

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has allegedly rebuffed his Russian allies' efforts to arrange a meeting with Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing Türkiye's upcoming elections and the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil as reasons.

This was reported by Reuters citing Turkish government sources, which wrote that Assad believes such a meeting would help Erdogan in Türkiye's June elections, allowing him to signal progress on returning some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living in Türkiye to its neighbour.

"Why hand Erdogan a victory for free? No rapprochement will happen before the elections", an unnamed source familiar with the Syrian leader's policy told Reuters.

Türkiye hosts the world's largest refugee population, and public resentment against Syrians has been growing in the country, which is facing a severe economic crisis. Amid the public frustration, Erdogan has promised a "voluntary return" of one million refugees to Syrian territory controlled by Ankara and its allies.

But an unnamed diplomat quoted by Reuters said Syria sees a meeting with Erdogan as "useless if it does not come with anything concrete, and what they have asked for so far is the full withdrawal of Turkish troops [from Syria]".

Meanwhile, Reuters also reported on two Turkish sources, including a senior official, disputing that Damascus was delaying and said that things were on track for an eventual meeting between the leaders. The publication recalled a recent statement of President Erdogan where he said, that "there can be no resentment in politics" when talking about Syria. 

Caliber.Az recalls, that Türkiye has been conducting several anti-terrorist operations in Iraq and Syria near the Turkish border targeting Kurdish-linked terrorist groups following the fatal terrorist attack on November 13 when an explosive was detonated in central Istanbul killing six people. 

Caliber.Az