Turkish, Russian prez discuss tension in Syria's Idlib

Ankara, Feb 12 (IANS) The Russian and Turkish presidents had a phone conversation and discussed the escalation in Idlib in northwestern Syria, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.Regarding his telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Erdogan said "we evaluated the ongoing process in Idlib. We especially dealt with the damage to our soldiers by Syrian forces and even by Russia," Xinhua news agency reported."We reached an agreement about the meeting of our officials of foreign affairs, defence and intelligence in Moscow. We will hold these talks as soon as possible," he told reporters. Erdogan recalled a refugee influx to Turkish borders from Idlib province of Syria, and said "we do not want to look at this asylum movement with much tolerance. We are carrying out some work on the Syrian territory to stop this. We want to settle people there."A Russian delegation held talks in Turkey's capital Ankara on Saturday and Monday over the escalating tension in Syria's Idlib, but the talks failed to yield an outcome.Turkey has recently sent reinforcements to Syria following several exchanges of fire with the Syrian government forces, which killed 13 Turkish soldiers in two separate incidents in Idlib since last week.
--IANS rt/