Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Russian envoy on Thursday that any rapprochement with Turkey must result in Turkish forces withdrawing from Syrian territory.
Alexander Lavrentiev, Russia’s special envoy for Syria, was in Damascus discussing Moscow’s efforts to broker talks between Ankara and Damascus. His visit came a few weeks after Moscow hosted the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers, the first such contact between Syria and Turkey since 2011.
Assad said that in order for these trilateral talks to be “fruitful,” the meetings should be based on “prior coordination and planning between Syria and Moscow.” He said the “occupation and support for terrorism” should be ended, referring to Turkey’s presence in Syria and its support for anti-government forces in the country.
There were rumors following the meeting in Moscow that Turkey agreed to withdraw from Syria, but sources told Middle East Eye that no deals were made, and there’s been no indication that Turkish troops are leaving Syria. But Turkey and Syria have both signaled they’re prepared for future talks, and Russia is trying to set up a meeting of the two country’s foreign ministers.
Reports have said the next meeting could happen in mid-January, but Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that a date hasn’t been set. “No, there is no concrete date yet. We have already talked about it, such a meeting is in the works,” Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled Wednesday that he expects more talks, saying that more Syrian refugees will return to Syria as the engagement develops. “The number of refugees returning to their country will increase whenever the diplomatic contacts that Turkey has been conducting for some time with Russia and Syria bear fruit,” he said.
The US is discouraging Turkey from its rapprochement with Syria and reiterated that it opposes countries normalizing with Assad. The US maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria with the purpose of preventing the country from rebuilding. The US also occupies eastern Syria and backs the Kurdish-led SDF in the region, allowing it to control an area where most of the country’s oil resources are.
The article had to throw a bone to the Anti US audience with the very last paragraph. Gotta always shift the blame.
Shifting it to where it belongs… They make peace and we make war. They make friends and we make enemies…
Ya got to own it.
Who is “they”?
Are they.
Nicely done.
Ok. Thanks for the grammar update. Now care to answer the question?
Could you be less combative KH, this is an antiwar website. We should have some type of proper decorum…
LOL. You applauded Adolfo snarling remark and than complaint that my response was too combative. You got to be kidding.
Check your balls and make sure they are securely in place.
OK. Donna having a rough day today?
https://media4.giphy.com/media/6Nv7BdrUl6Psc/giphy.gif
So it is yes.
You know, in a strange and twisted way, I almost enjoy your company………………………………………
😂
He needs to check his skin as well Donna—it seems pretty thin!
You cannot make this Sh!t up. They even go against the moderator, the most objective person you can find in this blog, in my opinion.
Suck up.
That’s your fall back line now. Stop using it. You are not anti war. You side with Russia.
🇷🇺= ☮️
You are an embarrassment with your logo here yet, you get a lot of likes from the supposedly Pro US folks here. But it’s ok, we know what’s going on.
Sounds like someone is a wee bit jealous.
“The US is discouraging Turkey from its rapprochement with Syria and reiterated that it opposes countries normalizing with Assad. The US maintains crippling economic sanctions on Syria with the purpose of preventing the country from rebuilding. The US also occupies eastern Syria and backs the Kurdish-led SDF in the region, allowing it to control an area where most of the country’s oil resources are.”
Debunk any of those claims. And are you in favor of any of those actions by the US? Which would make you what, pro-US?
Good thing you are not muted, you would’ve exploded otherwise. You definitely have a pattern supporting dictators. I’m sure you believe Assad is a great guy too.
Talk about not reading comments, nor articles.
Remember, the article was about Syria, Russia and Turkey, somehow, the writer decided to add US at the end for no reason. And that was my point.
I can blame the US for my right knee pain, and will most likely have your support.
Turkey has no reason to bend over backwards for the US. It will pull troops out if it benefits them only.
You need to let go of the idea that the US controls the entire world. It’s consuming your blog life. Look, even your name blames the US for everything.
Nice try.
“The US is discouraging Turkey from its rapprochement with Syria and reiterated that it opposes countries normalizing with Assad.”
Completely relevant to what is happening in Syria. And it’s IN the article. But sure, no reason to bring up the US. Tool.
And my name is as accurate as a name can possibly be. Do you want me to make a list?
Maybe the truth hurts.
Questioning the government and demanding reasonable explanations for its behavior does not make one “Anti-US”…
It is the very least we are entitled to…
We are actually “Pro-US”. Our largest demand is for our elected government and its officials to be held accountable for their words, deeds and actions. These are the basic rules in a law based society.
For me it’s pro-US but anti-empire.
Agreed. 🙂
For me is an anti US with excuses.
A privilege that you would not have in Russia or China.
That depends on who you know….
That depends on who you know….
And how does that have anything to do with what Donna said? It doesn’t. But for some reason, it’s your, and Don Julio’s, go to answer any time some inconvenient truth is uttered about the US. But, of course, this doesn’t include your, or Don Julio’s negative talk about the US. Those are allowed.
Nicely done. I owe you a cup of coffee or tea. 🙂
I can’t speak for Don, but I like being an American and having the freedom to express my opinion. You should also enjoy this freedom, you would not have it Russia. The place where one will be arrested if he/she calls the Ukraine invasion a war.
KH:
You go on and on about Russia. It rather feels like a ‘fixation’……..
You go on and on on siding with Russia. Now, That’s a fixation.
So, you double down with the same bullsh*t? Once again, it has/had nothing to do with what Donna said.
No Wars R Russia, it has everything to do with what Donna Said
No, Don respects Putin, Kenneth brought up Russia and China after Donna explained to him that questioning US actions is NOT being anti-US. Just more deflection because he, like you, are jingoistic to the f*king bone and will defend the US regardless of their actions.
How does anything you ever said have anything to do with anything?
Stop your stupid repeated lines.
You are anti US. That’s it.
I have not said anything negative about the US so don’t even go there, Yankee ( and I say that as an insult to you) .
“I have not said anything negative about the US
You called the US, China and Russia “bullies”. Is that a term of endearment? I mean seriously, putting the US in the same boat as China and Russia? Especially Russia? Maybe you should remember what you say. Similar to you saying that you RESPECTED Putin.
You keep mentioning the fact Russia and China are authoritarian nations. Just because they are authoritarian, does not mean they are always in the wrong. Just because the USA is a democracy, doesn’t mean it is always in the right.
The USA has been a democracy for over 200 years and has a long history of meddling in other countries’ affairs. The USA committed ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Native Americans and took their lands. It invaded Hawaii and imprisoned Queen Liliuokalani and colonized the island before making it a state. The USA urged Panama to secede from Colombia to build a canal. The USA took land away from Mexico because the US Citizens there did not like its laws. It should have let Mexico keep its land and have the US Citizens there return to states that were already in the USA.
During the 19th Century, the US was a democracy, neither Japan nor Spain were democracies. The US invaded Japan to make it trade with the US and started the Spanish American War to take Spain’s last colonies in the Americas and Pacific and said it would promote democracy in Cuba and crushed a rebellion in the Philippines.
During the Gulf War, the USA and UK were democracies and Iraq was not and did nothing to either of those two countries. They declared war on Iraq, bombed Iraq from the No Fly Zones and urged the UN to impose sanctions which led to starvation of the people there.
Bush and Blair lied about Iraq having WMD’s, threatening world peace and being involved in 9/11.
Obama lied about genocide going on in Libya and said “Assad must go” and they did nothing to the US nor any nation waging war there.
I know Pro US people, I know Anti War people, you are not one of them. Stop trying to mask it. You cannot fool me, not after I have read your posts for the last year and the posts you LIKED.
Nice try Donna.
Stick to your current mild anti US positions. At least you’ll be honest.
And don’t say ‘WE’ as if somehow this blog if full of pro US/Anti War people. No, this blog, especially the Ukraine war one, is Highly Pro Russia, Anti West/US/NATO.
pff, Pro US… lol,
If you are Pro US, then I am Ultra patriotic/Pro US.
Let anyone say anything negative about the US, and you’d like that comment. You even like the ‘Z’ avatar guy, what’s his name?, umm, Adolfo De Jesus, the Russian guy as wells as the other radical ones, Doom Stermz, IVAN, the list goes on.
I’m Pro-USA but I am anti-a–hole.
“He said the ‘occupation and support for terrorism’ should be ended, referring to Turkey’s presence in Syria and its support for anti-government forces in the country.” It’s not clear to me he did not also refer to the US. I’m not smart, but if you’re forcibly preventing people access to their own oil, I also must add wheat/food, you could be at least an economic terrorist. If you keep terrorizing an entire country and preventing it from eating and reconstructing, you could even qualify to graduate as a full fledged terrorist. But what do I know?
The so-called Global War on Terror was phony from the start. Is it just a coincidence that the seven nations Rumsfeld planned to “take out” back in 2001 are all Muslim? The Project for the New American Century (PNAC), that he belonged to, predicted that the shift [to American world hegemony] would come about slowly, unless there was “some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor.” That event of course was 9/11.
Why we have troops in Syria in the first place is deep and dark, and might be that Syria just happens to be part of Greater Israel, from the Nile to the Euphrates.
Spot on TC, spot on.
Syria was a host for terrorists since the 1960s.Now they are the victim?
That may or may not be true, but it doesn’t explain why the USA has had troops occupying Syria since the Obama administration. Could it have something to do with Syria being on Rumsfeld’s list of seven Muslim nations that PNAC wanted to “take out” back in 2001?
Syria as well as Iraq were on Rumsfeld’s list of countries to take out. He was more interested in battling Secular Muslim Nations than in battling Islamic Theocracies. He wanted there to be an endless clash of civilizations.
And somehow that makes starving Syrians today acceptable? As if the general population has any say in what their government is doing. I guess Americans should be sanctioned into economically ruin and misery, along with the possibility of millions starving to death, since their government destroyed the country of Iraq.
Wars, Jake is actually a robot programed to always support Israel no matter how absurd his arguments are. Zionism only makes sense to other Zionists.
Nicely said TC.
I keep thinking why there isn’t some way to penalize countries like the US for such actions, such as sanctions against Syria, occupying Syria…
We’re always promoting our ‘democratic values’ but we do not seem to practice them….
There is, the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Problem is, neither us or Israel will ever, ever be brought to justice… in this world.
You see, there is always a ‘catch’…..
Actually there is a way. The US citizens can vote out the leaders if they don’t agree with their actions. See Trump 2020.
True.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Good luck trying to “vote out” the 99% of congress which depends on campaign contributions from the likes of AIPAC.
“”another high-level meeting between Turkish and Syrian officials””
you couldn’t make this sh*t up
edit) my avatar is flipping all yalls the bird.
all yalls.
I’m enjoying being flipped off immensely… I think it should be a daily occurrence.
I’m guessing that Turkey wouldn’t have a problem withdrawing from Syria if Syria could assure that the Kurds would be neutralized.
The hubris and the hypocrisy in Washington is almost unfathomable. While criticizing Russia for invading Ukraine, the State Department seems to think there is nothing wrong with our invasion of Syria. And they are so full of themselves that State is telling other countries to not seek peace.
Notice that the USA as always opposes any peace deal, continues to occupy parts of Syria and steal its oil, and will never voluntarily leave a country it has not been invited to enter. What a surprise.
The only “crime” that Syria has “committed” is that of retaining its legitimate leader, and not one f*cking nation has a legitimate right to retain armed services there.
T’row da bums out, before Russia does.
Interesting logic. You claim that no nation has the right to retain armed services in Syria. (which I agree with). Then you root for Russia to come into Syria and toss out other nations. Do you see the inconsistency? Or do I have to point it out?
KH:
I’m not so sure of any inconsistencies….
When we are dealing with an inconsistent world, a certain amount of adaptation is required.
Not inconsistent at all. Syria is a longtime ally of Russia and they could use a little help tossing out the interlopers.
Syria invited Russia and its troops into their territory. No inconsistency at all.
Can I ask you a cosmic question?……….
Why are you here?
………………………………………………….
Kenny gets cheap thrills with the trigger comments.
Russia is there to protect Syria’s sovereignty, the USA & its allies are there to violate its sovereignty.
It would have been a great winn for Syria if the turkish troups could withdraw from Syria, who has been in war now for twelve years. It will also be a big winn for Syria if Israel stops bombing Damaskus now and then.
I use to watch Fantasy Island too.
What the Turks take, they don’t give back. Assad will learn this very soon.
Erdogan wants to occupy Aleppo and annex northern parts of Syria. He can’t be trusted.