Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, by phone, of the need to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis, while the latter proposed holding a trilateral meeting bringing together Iran, Turkey and Syria. In response to Erdogan, the Syrian regime denied that its forces suffered any losses.

The Iranian presidency said that Erdogan assured Rouhani in a telephone conversation that a political solution is the way to end the Syrian crisis.

Iranian state television quoted Rouhani as telling Erdogan, "The issue of Idlib, where the dangers posed by the gathering of terrorists, and the necessity of preserving the lives of innocent people there, has become very complicated ... on the one hand, the lives of the people must be protected, and on the other hand the roots of the terrorists should be uprooted from the region."

Rouhani suggested holding a tripartite meeting between Iran, Turkey and Syria on the situation in Idlib, and considered that the tripartite cooperation is of special importance, indicating Tehran's readiness to host this meeting.

On the other hand, Erdogan made a call to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, during which he highlighted the "worsening humanitarian crisis in Idlib governorate, northwestern Syria and its regional effects," and stressed "the need to express a collective and firm stance towards the aggression of the Syrian regime," according to the Turkish presidency.

Turkish Foreign Minister meets his American counterpart in Doha (Anatolia Agency)

Patriot missiles
On the sidelines of the signing ceremony of an agreement between the United States and the Taliban in Doha, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoوlu discussed with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo the situation in Idlib, and follow up on the issues that Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump during their phone call on Friday.

After the meeting, Gawishoglu said that Ankara wanted Washington to send Patriot missiles to support it in Idlib, the minister told reporters.

"Yesterday our delegation held another meeting in Ankara at the request of the Russian delegation, but it seems that achieving this (a ceasefire) is possible only through the meeting of President Erdogan and Putin ... we are working towards that, and the meeting will be during the first week of March ".

Gawishoglu explained that the attacks of the regime are turning into a catastrophe throughout Syria, specifically in Idlib, stressing that the Syrian regime and its supporters are targeting civilians, hospitals, schools and Turkish soldiers.

He pointed out that Russia explicitly supports the Syrian regime, but it cannot be said that it directly targets his country's forces.

As for the Russian Foreign Ministry, it said in a statement that Russia and Turkey have agreed to reduce tension in the Syrian province of Idlib "as the fighting against terrorists continues".

System response
On the Syrian side, the regime news agency, SANA, stated that Erdogan "continued to practice a policy of misleading and lying to justify his aggression on Syrian soil."

She added that "the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed in its reports that Syria does not have any chemical facilities," after Erdogan said that his country's forces destroyed a chemical warehouse for the regime on Friday evening, adding, "We did not want to reach this point, but the regime forced us to treat it in this way." ".

The agency considered that Turkey exaggerated the talk about losses in the ranks of the regime forces, stressing that the regime was engaged in violent clashes against elements of the "Jabhat al-Nusra", and suffered large losses in personnel and equipment.

But Erdogan announced earlier that more than 2,100 members of the regime's forces were killed and about 300 vehicles belonging to him were destroyed.