Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu held a meeting on Tuesday with the chairman of the opposition National Coalition for Syrian Opposition and Revolutionary Forces (CNFORS), Salem al Meslet, and the president of the Syrian Turkmen Assembly, Abdul Rahman Mustafa.
«We reiterate our support for the opposition and the Syrian people in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254,» the Turkish Foreign Minister said in a post on his official Twitter profile in the framework of the meeting, which was also attended by the chairman of the Syrian Negotiation Commission, Badr Jamus.
Mustafa stressed on Twitter that the meeting took place in a «friendly atmosphere», while Al Meslet conveyed to Cavusoglu his discomfort with the «criminal regime» of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Turkish Foreign Minister’s meeting with the Syrian opposition comes after Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met with his Syrian and Russian counterparts in a sign of a possible rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus.
The meeting, held in Moscow and which generated unease among the Syrian population in the north of the country, is the first of its kind since the Syrian war broke out in 2011 and served to address the Syrian crisis in a sign of a possible strengthening of bilateral relations, damaged because of the conflict and Turkey’s support for various rebel groups.
On the eve of the meeting, the various UN agencies, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), asked the Security Council to extend resolution 2642 on humanitarian aid for northwest Syria, as it expires on January 10.
«Unlike previous resolutions that extended cross-border operations for 12 months, the latest action taken by the Council only granted a six-month authorization. This led to additional logistical and operational challenges, increased operational costs and reduced the ability of humanitarian partners to assist those in need,» they recalled in a joint statement.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
