BEIRUT/ANKARA: Syria is resisting Russian efforts to broker a summit with Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan, three sources said on Friday, after more than a decade of bitter enmity since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war.
However, two Turkish sources, including a senior official, disputed that Damascus was delaying and said that things were on track for an eventual meeting between the leaders.
Erdogan’s government supports rebel fighters who tried to topple President Bashar Assad and has accused the Syrian leader of state terrorism, saying earlier in the conflict that peace efforts could not continue under his rule.
Assad says it is Turkiye which has backed terrorism by supporting an array of fighters including Islamist factions and launching repeated military incursions inside northern Syria. Ankara is readying another possible operation, after blaming Syrian Kurdish fighters for a bombing in Istanbul.
Russia helped Assad turn the tide of the war in his favor and says it is seeking a political end to the conflict and wants to bring the two leaders together for talks.
Erdogan has signalled readiness for rapprochement.
Speaking a week after he shook hands with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi last month, after repeatedly saying he could not meet a leader who came to power in a coup, he said Turkiye could “also get things on track with Syria.”
“There can be no resentment in politics,” he said in a televised discussion at the weekend.
However, three sources with knowledge of Syria’s position on possible talks said Assad had rejected a proposal to meet Erdogan with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
Two of the sources said Damascus believed such a meeting could boost Erdogan ahead of Turkish elections next year, especially if it addressed Ankara’s goal of returning some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees from Turkiye.
“Why hand Erdogan a victory for free? No rapprochement will happen before the elections,” one of the two said, adding that Syria had also turned down the idea of a foreign ministers’ meeting.
The third source, a diplomat with knowledge of the proposal, said Syria “sees such a meeting 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.”
Turkish officials said this week the army needed just a few days to be ready for a ground incursion into northern Syria, where it has already carried out artillery and air strikes.
But the government has also said it is ready for talks with Damascus if they focus on security at the border, where Ankara wants Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters pushed from the frontier and refugees moved into ‘safe zones’.
An Assad-Erdogan meeting could be possible “in the not too distant future,” the senior Turkish official said.
“Putin is slowly preparing the path for this,” the official said. “It would be the beginning of a major change in Syria and would have very positive effects on Turkiye. Russia would benefit too... given it is stretched in many areas.”
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Syria resisting Russia’s efforts to broker Turkiye summit, sources say
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Syria resisting Russia’s efforts to broker Turkiye summit, sources say
- Erdogan's government supports rebel fighters who tried to topple President Bashar al-Assad and has accused the Syrian leader of state terrorism
- Assad says it is Turkiye which has backed terrorism by supporting an array of fighters including Islamist factions
Trump, Erdogan discuss Syria and Gaza in call
WASHINGTON/ ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan discussed developments in Syria and Gaza with US counterpart Donald Trump in a telephone call on Tuesday as Syria’s Turkiye-backed government announced a ceasefire with US-allied Kurdish forces after days of clashes.
Turkiye separately weighed if Erdogan should join the US leader’s “Board of Peace” initiative.
“President Erdogan stated that Turkiye was closely following developments in Syria, that Syria’s unity, harmony and territorial integrity were important for Turkiye,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Earlier Trump said he had a “very good call” with Erdogan, without elaborating.
Syria’s government seized swathes of territory in the northeast this week, and gave the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces four days to agree on integrating into the central state.
The SDF’s main ally, the United States, said the partnership with the group had changed nature after Syria’s new government emerged.
The Turkish presidency added that Erdogan and Trump also discussed the fight against the Islamic State militant group and the “situation” of its prisoners in Syrian jails.
Turkiye deems the SDF a terrorist organization linked with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has mounted a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
In its peace process with the PKK, Ankara has called for the group and its affilites to disband and disarm.
Ankara, the main foreign backer of Syria’s new government, has praised Damascus’ advances against the SDF and repeatedly called for it to integrate with the Syrian state apparatus.
ERDOGAN THANKS TRUMP FOR ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ INVITE
Erdogan told Trump Turkiye would continue to coordinate with Washington on Gaza, the Turkish presidency said.
“President Erdogan thanked US President Trump for the invitation to the Gaza Board of Peace,” it added.
A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the “Board of Peace” and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza.
In October, a fragile ceasefire began in Gaza under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas had signed off.
Earlier on Tuesday, Turkiye said Erdogan would decide soon on joining the initiative. Turkiye has been critical of Israel’s assault on Gaza, casting it as genocide, while Israel has repeatedly opposed a Turkish role in Gaza.
More than 460 Palestinians, more than 100 of them children, and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since the Gaza truce began.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Later Trump said it would be expanded to tackle conflicts around the world.
Many rights experts say that Trump’s chairing of a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs would resemble a colonial structure.
Diplomats fear such a board for global issues could harm the work of the United Nations.
Among those the White House has named to the board are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Turkiye separately weighed if Erdogan should join the US leader’s “Board of Peace” initiative.
“President Erdogan stated that Turkiye was closely following developments in Syria, that Syria’s unity, harmony and territorial integrity were important for Turkiye,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Earlier Trump said he had a “very good call” with Erdogan, without elaborating.
Syria’s government seized swathes of territory in the northeast this week, and gave the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces four days to agree on integrating into the central state.
The SDF’s main ally, the United States, said the partnership with the group had changed nature after Syria’s new government emerged.
The Turkish presidency added that Erdogan and Trump also discussed the fight against the Islamic State militant group and the “situation” of its prisoners in Syrian jails.
Turkiye deems the SDF a terrorist organization linked with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has mounted a four-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
In its peace process with the PKK, Ankara has called for the group and its affilites to disband and disarm.
Ankara, the main foreign backer of Syria’s new government, has praised Damascus’ advances against the SDF and repeatedly called for it to integrate with the Syrian state apparatus.
ERDOGAN THANKS TRUMP FOR ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ INVITE
Erdogan told Trump Turkiye would continue to coordinate with Washington on Gaza, the Turkish presidency said.
“President Erdogan thanked US President Trump for the invitation to the Gaza Board of Peace,” it added.
A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the “Board of Peace” and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza.
In October, a fragile ceasefire began in Gaza under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas had signed off.
Earlier on Tuesday, Turkiye said Erdogan would decide soon on joining the initiative. Turkiye has been critical of Israel’s assault on Gaza, casting it as genocide, while Israel has repeatedly opposed a Turkish role in Gaza.
More than 460 Palestinians, more than 100 of them children, and three Israeli soldiers have been reported killed since the Gaza truce began.
Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Later Trump said it would be expanded to tackle conflicts around the world.
Many rights experts say that Trump’s chairing of a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs would resemble a colonial structure.
Diplomats fear such a board for global issues could harm the work of the United Nations.
Among those the White House has named to the board are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
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