On Tuesday, Washington urged all governments to think twice before embarking on any kind of normalization of relations with the president, who is described in the US as “barbaric dictator” Bashar al-Assad, whose minister recently met with his Turkish counterpart in Russia.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a key supporter of the rebels who have sought to topple the Assad government since 2011, now says he is ready to meet with his Syrian counterpart.

The defense ministers of the two countries met in Moscow at the end of December. It was the first official meeting of this level since the beginning of the war.

“We do not support countries that improve their relations or express their support for the restoration of the barbaric dictator Bashar al-Assad,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Tuesday.

“We call on states to take heed of the horrendous human rights abuses by the Assad regime over the past twelve years as it continues to perpetrate atrocities against the Syrian people and deny them access to vital humanitarian assistance,” he added.

Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, reasserted control over much of Syria in an armed conflict that has killed half a million people, displaced half of the country’s population, and marked the rise and fall of Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists. group.

Last year saw the lowest death toll since the start of the war, and a growing number of countries see Assad as the winner of the conflict. In March 2022, the Syrian president visited the United Arab Emirates, a US ally, as part of his first visit to another Arab state since the start of the war.

After a meeting of defense ministers in Moscow, the Turkish government yesterday accepted reassuring figures from the Syrian opposition, confirming that it supports the decision of the UN Security Council on a political settlement of the crisis in Syria.

The US says sanctions against Bashar al-Assad will remain in place from 2020 until the regime is held accountable for its atrocities.

Source: RES-IPE