Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Friday his country was glad to see a rapprochement between its ally Syria and Türkiye, which has backed the political and armed opposition to Damascus over the last decade.
"We are happy with the dialogue taking place between Syria and Türkiye, and we believe that it will reflect positively between the two countries," said Amirabdollahian, during a diplomatic visit to the Lebanese capital Beirut.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said talks with foe Türkiye should be based on the aims of ending the occupation of Syrian land and halting support for what he called terrorism, an apparent reference to Ankara's forces in northern Syria and its support for rebels.
In his first publicly reported remarks on landmark talks overseen by his ally Russia, Assad also said the meetings "should be coordinated between Syria and Russia in advance in order to... produce tangible results sought by Syria".
Assad made the comments, reported by Syrian state media on Thursday, in a meeting with Russian presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev in Damascus.
Türkiye has been a major backer of the political and armed opposition to Assad during the 12-year-long Syrian conflict, and has sent its own troops into swathes of the country's north.
Moscow is supporting a rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, hosting talks between their defense ministers last month and aiming for meetings between the foreign ministers and eventually presidents.
Lavrentiev said Moscow viewed the defense ministers' meeting "positively" and hoped to develop talks "to the level of foreign ministers", Syrian state news agency SANA reported.
Assad said the results should be based on the principle of "ending" the occupation and support for terrorism, a term that Syrian authorities use to refer to all opposition armed groups.
A source with close knowledge of the negotiations said Syria wanted Türkiye to pull its troops from swathes of the north and to halt support to three main opposition factions.
The source said Syria was keen to see progress on those demands through follow-up committees before agreeing to a foreign ministers' meeting.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday he could meet his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mikdad early in February, rejecting reports that the two could meet next week.
Such a meeting would mark the highest-level talks between Ankara and Damascus since the Syrian war began in 2011.
There has been no official Syrian comment on when such a meeting might happen.
Meanwhile, the United States said it would continue to “discourage partners around the world from normalizing or improving relations with the Assad regime."
"We’re going to continue espousing the principles that are at the heart of UN Security Council Resolution 2254," said State Department spokesperson Ned Price at a press briefing on Thursday.
"We continue to believe that it forms the most appropriate basis for bringing the civil war to an end in a way that is durable, in a way that respects and promotes the aspirations of the Syrian people."
"Assad has perpetrated atrocities against his own people. He has – his forces have conducted crimes against humanity. They have conducted war crimes as well," he went on to say.
"We of course don’t know what the Assad regime might have done would it not have been for the accountability measures that have been imposed on him. We do not know what the Assad regime might have done had it not been for the actions on the part of the United States and countries around the world to confiscate and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles in the aftermath of 2014. All of that is unknowable," he said.
"What we know is that we are going to continue to promote accountability for the Assad regime," added Price.
