Asked whether Turkey would work with
Assad, Cavusoglu said Syria must hold an election.
One assumption is that Russia had assented to the idea of a demilitarised zone to demonstrate to the Western capitals and others warning against
Assad's military assault on the assertion that the rebels do not want a peaceful settlement and must therefore be removed by force.
But what has received far less attention is the extant
Assad went to ensure his regime's survival.
Others want a more muscular approach, to topple
Assad and to keep Russia and Iran from cementing Syria into their Mideast spheres of influence.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar
Assad told a group of Russian lawmakers on Sunday that Western missile strikes on his country were an act of aggression, Russian news agencies reported.
Just a week before this latest chemical attack,
Assad heard President Trump announce that American troops would be leaving Syria 'very soon,' and that Syria would become someone else's problem.
Turkey has in the past demanded the removal of
Assad from power and backed rebels fighting to overthrow him, but it had toned down its demands since it started working with
Assad's allies, Russia and Iran, for a political resolution.
Once it became clear that
Assad was going nowhere -- that he was successfully militarizing the conflict in a highly sectarian manner -- the White House chose to regard the president's words as advisory in nature.
Although Erdogan is notorious for his wildly unpredictable decision-making, it is more than likely that before going public on his radical change of heart on
Assad, he was in touch with the new national security team taking shape in Washington.
There was no need for such a conversation with President
Assad," Lavrov said at his annual press conference in response to media reports that Moscow had allegedly suggested
Assad step down.