Syrian President Bashar Assad expressed hope on Thursday that a recent normalization of relations between Russia and Turkey could give Moscow a chance to persuade Ankara to change its stance toward the Syrian conflict, RIA Novosti reports.

“The only Syria’s hope is that Russia would be able to change Turkish policy [in regard to Syria] through this new rapprochement between Turkey and Russia,” Assad said in an interview with Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda daily.

The Syrian president said he had a positive attitude toward the rapprochement between Moscow and Ankara.

Source: RT