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AFP
Moscow
Ankara is doing"everything possible" to facilitate negotiations between Moscow and Syrian opposition groups to halt the bloodshed in Aleppo, Turkey's premier said in an interview published Wednesday after meeting President Vladimir Putin.
"We are doing everything possible to bring about contacts between opposition representatives and Russia and have achieved very good success on this score," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told Russia's Interfax news agency. "If any consensus reached is turned into a signed document then that would be to everyone's benefit.
Now is the time when you need to get results," Yildirim said in comments translated into Russian.
Yildirim on Tuesday met with Putin in the Kremlin as Moscow and Ankara continue moves to put a furious row over Turkey's downing of a Russian warplane last year behind them.
A source said in late November that Russian representatives had met with Syrian rebels in Turkey with Ankara's mediation to discuss the possibility of a truce in the divided city of Aleppo, but they failed to reached a deal. Syrian government forces have since reclaimed more of the rebel stronghold in eastern Aleppo in a sweeping advance that has drawn condemnation from the West.
Russia is pushing for a total rebel withdrawal from Aleppo before any ceasefire can come into force, while Ankara is angling for an immediate halt to the fighting.
Russia and Turkey are on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict with Moscow flying a bombing campaign to back up leader Bashar al-Assad and Ankara supporting groups that oppose him.
