It will be sad to hear nothing new at meeting with Turkish foreign minister - Lavrov

BELGRADE, December 2. /TASS/. It will be sad to hear nothing new at a meeting with the Turkish foreign minister in Belgrade, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday. "As regards a possible meeting with the Turkish foreign minister, in response to strong requests of the Turkish side, we are ready to envision such a meeting," Lavrov said. "We want to understand what our Turkish partners who are insistently seeking a meeting can say in addition to what they have already said publicly," he said. "It will be sad if we hear nothing new," Lavrov said. "But in any case, we would like to pose a few questions to the Turkish side as well, including on the attempt to distort the contents of my phone conversation with the Turkish foreign minister on November 25." "In particular, the leaks in Turkish newspapers claim that during the conversation he proposed creating a hotline between the military departments of the Russian Federation and Turkey, and we stepped aside. It’s untrue, because such a line was created at the earliest stage of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ operation on a Russian initiative. But the Turkish side has not used the line a single time," he said. "The leaks also claimed that during the November 25 phone conversation, Minister [Mevlut] Cavusoglu suggested to me establishing a coalition between the Russian Federation and Turkey to fight the Islamic State [terrorist group], and we did not display enthusiasm. It’s also untrue," Lavrov said. "It’s President [Vladimir] Putin who speaking at the UN General Assembly proposed creating a united front against terrorism," he said. Russia’s operation in Syria Russia’s Aerospace Forces started delivering pinpoint strikes in Syria at facilities of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations, which are banned in Russia, on September 30, 2015, on a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. The air group initially comprised over 50 aircraft and helicopters, including Sukhoi Su-24M, Su-25SM and state-of-the-art Su-34 aircraft. They were redeployed to the Khmeimim airbase in the province of Latakia. On October 7, four missile ships of the Russian Navy’s Caspian Flotilla fired 26 Kalibr cruise missiles (NATO codename Sizzler) at militants’ facilities in Syria. On October 8, the Syrian army passed to a large-scale offensive. In mid-November, Russia increased the number of aircraft taking part in the operation in Syria to 69 and involved strategic bombers in strikes at militants. Targets of the Russian aircraft include terrorists’ gasoline tankers and oil refineries. Read more