ANKARA, November 29. /TASS/. A meeting between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad is unlikely to take place before the June 2023 presidential election in Turkey, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told the A Haber television channel on Tuesday.
"Conditions should be ripe for [the meeting]. I don’t think it will take place before the presidential election," Kalin said.
He added that Turkey maintained lines of communication with Syria at the level of special services.
"We do maintain communication of this kind. It is necessary," Erdogan’s spokesman said.
The Turkish media reported following Erdogan’s talks in Sochi on August 5 with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ankara was discussing establishing direct communication between the leaders of Turkey and Syria. Turkish officials have said no such talks are currently being planned and that Ankara and Damascus have been maintaining dialogue via intelligence services only.
Erdogan said following the European Political Community summit in Prague on October 6 that though a meeting with Assad was currently out of the question, he could meet the Syrian leader "when the right time comes."
On November 27, Erdogan said relations between Ankara and Damascus may improve, as did his country’s dialogue with Cairo. Erdogan and al-Sisi held their first personal meeting on the margins of the 2022 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Qatar on November 19. The two presidents exchanged greetings, shook hands and talked for about half an hour. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on the following day that Turkey might send an ambassador to Egypt in the coming months.