Erdogan says meeting Assad not impossible

“As of now, such a meeting is not on the agenda. But I cannot say it is impossible for me to meet with Assad,” Erdogan told a press conference at the Prague meeting of the European Political Community.

“When the right time comes, we can also go to the way of meeting with the President of Syria,” he added, according to Reuters.

A report in Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper in September said that Erdogan wanted to meet his Syrian counterpart if he had participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

But, he noted Assad was not attending the summit.

Hurriyet reported Erdogan made the comments about Assad at a meeting of his ruling AK Party, held behind closed doors.

The report came after four sources told Reuters Turkey’s intelligence chief held multiple meetings with his Syrian counterpart in Damascus in recent weeks.

MP/PR