Turkey doesn't seek to remove Al-Assad, Erdogan

Shafaq News/ Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he could never rule out dialogue and diplomacy with Syria.

Asked about potential talks with Damascus, he said diplomacy between states can never be entirely severed.

 There is a "need to take further steps with Syria," Erdogan said.

"You have to accept that you cannot cut the political dialogue and diplomacy between the states," he said. "There should always be such dialogues. " 

The Turkish President said he also wanted to work with Tehran in Syria but could not because "Iran has other plans as we see them."

Concerning Bashar Al-Assad, Erdogan stressed that Turkey does not seek to remove him.

"We don't have such an issue whether to defeat Assad or not," he told journalists accompanying him on a trip to Ukraine.

"All the steps we have taken with Russians in northern Syria and the east and west of the Euphrates, there is a fight against terrorism."