The Syrian Ministry of Defense said that the talks with Turkey in Moscow were positive.

MOSCOW, December 28 – RIA Novosti. The Syrian Ministry of Defense reported that the meeting between Syrian Defense Minister Ali Mahmud Abbas and his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar in Moscow was positive.

“Today, a meeting was held in Moscow with the participation of the Russian side, between the Syrian Minister of Defense and the Head of the Syrian General Intelligence Organization, the Turkish Minister of Defense and the head of the Turkish intelligence. The parties discussed a number of issues. The meeting was positive,” the report says.

Earlier on Wednesday, tripartite talks were held between the defense ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey. After the meeting, the parties noted the constructive nature of the dialogue and the need to continue it in order to stabilize the situation both in Syria and in the region as a whole.

As the Hürriyet newspaper later wrote, these talks were the first official contact between Ankara and Damascus in 11 years.

Since November 20, Turkey has been conducting an airstrike against a wing of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Syria – attacks have been reported in northern Iraq as well as the city of Kobani. President Tayyip Erdoğan described the operation as successful and did not exclude the future of the ground operation. He also noted that Turkey will take all necessary steps to establish a 30-kilometer security zone on the Syrian border next year.