Bashar al-Assad confirms withdrawal regarding the issue of restoring relations with Turkey

Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday, Sunday, that restoring relations with Turkey requires removing the reasons that led to their destruction.

He pointed out that any initiative to restore relations “must come from the Turks,” adding, “We did not occupy the territory of a neighboring country in order to withdraw, and we did not support terrorism in order to stop supporting it.”

Al-Assad’s speech comes after a period of lukewarm statements calling for the restoration of relations, and Turkey was issuing many messages during the recent period, but the Syrian regime’s response, on the condition that relations be preceded by a Turkish withdrawal from Syrian territory, did not result in a meeting between the two parties, despite the statements that spoke of Regional initiatives on restoring the relationship.

The Syrian President said that the meetings that took place over the past years regarding normalization with Turkey did not achieve any results.

He spoke that Syria dealt positively with the initiatives related to normalization, which were undertaken by more than one international and regional party, such as Russia, Iran, and Iraq.

It seems that the issue of the condition of Turkey’s withdrawal from Syrian territory, and the agreement to combat terrorism, are classified as two main items for the return of relations, and the lack of agreement on them appears to be not presented in the discussions and relations.