There will be no meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syria's Bashar al-Assad at an upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in September, the Turkish foreign minister said on Tuesday, Anadolu reported.
Speaking to the Haber Global news broadcaster in the capital Ankara, Cavusoglu ruled out a meeting between Erdogan and Assad at the summit slated for Sept. 15-16 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, adding that the Syrian President was not invited to the event.
Cavusoglu also underlined that steps must be taken for lasting peace in Syria.
"From the very beginning, Turkey said that the most important process is the political one," he said.
Under the pretext of fighting PKK terrorists, Turkey has deployed its troops in areas of northern Iraq and Syria and is conducting aerial attacks on parts of the northern areas of these countries. Turkey's action has been met with strong reactions from the legitimate and legal governments of Baghdad and Damascus.
Earlier, some sources reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will probably meet his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Uzbekistan.
MP/PR