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Turkey says united, peaceful Syria impossible with President Assad

'We don't believe that a united, peaceful Syria will be possible with Assad remaining in power.'

January 13, 2017 Less than a minute read

syria 039 s president bashar al assad speaks to french journalists in damascus syria in this handout picture provided by sana on january 9 2017 photo reuters

Syria's President Bashar al Assad speaks to French journalists in Damascus, Syria, in this handout picture provided by SANA on January 9, 2017. PHOTO: REUTERS

Turkey still believes a united and peaceful Syria is impossible with President Bashar al Assad but wants to proceed "step-by-step" and see the outcome of planned peace talks in Astana, President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said on Friday.

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"Our position on Assad is clear. We don't believe that a united, peaceful Syria will be possible with Assad remaining in power. But we will see how Astana talks go, we want to go step-by-step at this point," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said.

Speaking to reporters at a roundtable in Ankara, Kalin said fighting in Syria had largely stopped over the past two weeks under a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey.