Bashar Al-Assad to publicly reject the current conditions for normalization with Turkey – The possible end of the rapprochement talks?

While the most recent tripartite meeting in Moscow between the ministers of Syria, Turkey, and Russia for the sake of discussing potential conditions for a formal restoration of bilateral relations between Syria and Turkey has sparked lots of contentious debates and speculation, the President of Damascus government, Bashar Al-Assad just went public with a shocking and probably unexpected move.
During a meeting with the Russian President’s special envoy, Bashar Al-Assad openly stated that his government rejects the current conditions under which a rapprochement between his country and Turkey was seeking to achieve and described the Turkish State as an „occupying country and a supporter of terrorism“.
Assad publicly enunciated that „The tripartite meetings between Russia, Syria, and Turkey will not be fruitful unless the occupation ends and support for terrorism stops“.
Bashar al-Assad’s speech came in conjunction with the information, conveyed by the “Al-Mayadeen” website, quoting high-ranking sources in the Damascus government which state that Syria does not acquiesce to hosting a next meeting between Syrian foreign minister Al-Miqdad and his Turkish counterpart Cavusoglu.
Syria’s rejection in fact constitutes a result of Turkey’s refusal of agreeing to the stated conditions by Damascus, the most eminent being the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Syrian territory, while Turkey on the other hand, pursues the goal of resettling Syrian refugees due to the upcoming elections in which Erdogan might fear for his reelection.