Erdogan denies secret meeting with Assad

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refuted reports claiming that he held a secret meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, a media report said on Tuesday.

"I did not meet Assad, and I have no intention of meeting him," Erdogan said, commenting on social media reports about holding secret talks at Russian President Vladimir Putin's request, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

On a new military operation to expel Al Qaeda-linked terrorists from Idlib of northern Syria, Erdogan said the situation in Idlib was developing positively.

"It is being run as we agreed with Russia," he noted.

Syrian President Assad said on Sunday that Damascus does not consider Ankara as its partner or a guarantor state of Syrian settlement as the latter allegedly supports terrorism and thus undermines political and social crisis settlement in Syria.

--IANS

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