“Our position has been clear. We will not normalize relations with the Assad regime absent authentic progress toward a political solution to the underlying conflict,” US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters during a press briefing.
Washington’s remarks come amid rapprochement efforts between Ankara and Damascus. Last week, Assad expressed “openness to all initiatives related to the relationship between Syria and Turkey,” during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev.
“We’ve been clear with regional partners, including Türkiye… that credible steps to improve the humanitarian condition, human rights, and the security situation for all Syrians needs to be at the focus for these kinds of engagements, “Patel said.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan renewed his willingness to normalize relations with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, with ties severed since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.
“There is no reason not to establish” relations with Syria, Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.
Washington has told regional partners that Damascus “needs to cooperate in the political process laid out in UN Security Council Resolution 2254,” which calls for a ceasefire and political settlement in Syria, Patel said.
When the war erupted in Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then prime minister of Turkey, slammed Assad for committing violence against his people. Erdogan demanded the removal of the Syrian president from power and labeled him a “terrorist,” but he later toned down his demands, instead seeking a rapprochement.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies control swathes of Syrian land in the north, including the Kurdish towns of Afrin, Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain), and Gire Spi (Tal Abyad), seized during military incursions against Kurdish forces in Syria. It has recently threatened a new offensive, accusing Syrian Kurds of having ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey.
Erdogan said in July last year that he had not closed the door for talks with Assad, but declined to withdraw from Syria.
“Right now in Syria, Assad, unfortunately, wants Turkey to leave northern Syria. Such a thing cannot happen,” Erdogan said at the time.
Days later, in a rare televised interview with Sky News Arabia, Assad said that he was not willing to meet Erdogan unless Turkish troops left Syria.
