DAMASCUS, July 16 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday expressed positivity towards improving relations with Türkiye but emphasised Syria's key security concern as a precondition, said Xinhua.
In his first response to a question about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's request to meet with him, Assad said "Syria insisted that the meeting is necessary regardless of the level ... and there is a meeting being arranged at the security level by some intermediaries".
He told reporters while he was casting his ballot in the Syrian parliament elections that "we have been positive, and based on this positivity, we have not seen results because there was no political will".
Assad questioned the framework of the proposed meetings, saying if a meeting did not address "the causes of the problem, which are represented by supporting terrorism and withdrawing from Syrian territories ... what does the meeting mean?"
He said Syria is open to any measures be it a meeting or not, and stressed the importance of achieving positive results that serve both the interests of Syria and Türkiye.
Assad reiterated that Syria is "positive towards any initiative to improve relations" with its neighbour.
-- BERNAMA-XINHUA
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