Reuters quoted 3 sources as saying that Syria is resisting Russian mediation efforts to hold a summit with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after a estrangement for more than a decade since the outbreak of the war in Syria.

The three sources, described by Reuters as well-informed, indicated that Assad rejected a proposal to meet Erdogan with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Two sources said that Damascus believes that such a meeting may strengthen the position of the Turkish president before the elections next year, especially if it deals with Ankara's goal to return a number of 3.6 million Syrian refugees from Turkey.

One of them said, "Why give Erdogan a free victory? There will be no rapprochement before the elections," adding that Syria also rejected the idea of ​​a meeting of the two foreign ministers.

The third source - a diplomat familiar with the proposal - said that Syria "believes that this meeting is useless if it does not produce anything tangible, and what they are demanding now is the complete withdrawal of Turkish forces."

Al-Assad says that it is Turkey that supports terrorism by helping a group of fighters, including Islamist factions, as well as making repeated military incursions into northern Syria.

The Turkish president said, a week after he shook hands with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last month, that Turkey could "put things on the right track with Syria."

"There can be no rancor in politics," Erdogan made clear - in a televised debate over the weekend.

It is noteworthy that Ankara is preparing for another possible operation in northern Syria, after blaming Syrian Kurdish fighters for a bombing in Istanbul.

Turkish officials said this week that the army needed only a few days to be ready for a ground incursion into northern Syria, where it had already carried out artillery and air strikes.

But the government has also said it is ready to hold talks with Damascus if it focuses on border security, as Ankara wants to remove Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters from the border and move refugees to "safe areas".

The senior Turkish official said that it is possible to meet between Assad and Erdogan "in the not too distant future."