TASS. Moscow is working toward hosting a meeting between Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said in an interview with Al Arabiya, released on Friday.
Commenting on a potential Assad-Erdogan meeting in Russia, Lavrentyev said that Moscow supported such talks. “I reiterate that Turkey should consider this (opportunity to hold a meeting in Russia – TASS), and we insist that such a meeting could be positive and useful overall and we are working toward that,” he added.
Referring to a comment by Turkey’s top diplomat Mevlut Cavusoglu who said the time was not ripe yet for a meeting between Assad and Erdogan, the senior Russian diplomat said communication between the two depended on their wishes, not any timing. “We insist that <…> it is the willingness to meet each other halfway that matters the most, and we can feel such signs on the part of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who anticipated that Syria and Turkey should work toward bringing bilateral relations back to normal,” Lavrentyev stressed.
