Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, said that Moscow supports the idea of organizing a meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mekdad, and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. As a result, the meeting will create more commonalities between the two sides. Turkish media also reported that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had expressed a wish to meet President Bashar al-Assad had the latter attended the summit held in Uzbekistan.
Bogdanov told Novosti on Monday: “We think the meeting will be useful. We are talking about establishing contacts, so far there are military and security contacts, we support them and encourage them to meet and find common denominators in their positions.”
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Bogdanov stressed that Moscow supports the normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus, as is happening with other countries in the region. He added that Moscow is ready to help hold a meeting at all levels– based on their previous experiences in holding such meetings.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement comes at a time when it is being announced to hold intelligence meetings at the highest levels between the Syrian and Turkish sides. Reuters quoted its sources as confirming that the head of the Turkish intelligence service, Hakan Fidan, was in Damascus in the last weeks of August and held several meetings with his Syrian counterpart Major General Ali Mamlouk. According to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, during the meetings. they discussed priority issues and margins of flexibility of the parties, noting that it will take some time to get a tangible result from these conversations.
In related news, the Russian Foreign Ministry proposed organizing a meeting between the foreign ministers of Turkey and the Syrian regime, considering that it “will be useful at the moment.”
On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that “Moscow has the idea of organizing a meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria. We are ready to help with its establishment if necessary.”
He added, according to RIA Novosti: “We believe that the meeting will be useful. We are talking about establishing contacts between the two sides, currently the contacts are taking place at the military and intelligence levels between the two sides. We support this meeting, and we encourage them to do so.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
