President Erdoğan is at the same summit as Assad in Riyadh.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, on a special plane "CAN" to attend the Extraordinary Joint Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation-Arab League. Erdoğan was welcomed at King Khalid International Airport by Riyadh Emir Prince Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Ankara Fahad bin Assad Abualnasr, and Turkey's Ambassador to Riyadh Emrullah İşler.

President Erdoğan, along with Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar, Presidential Foreign Policy and Security Chief Advisor Akif Çağatay Kılıç, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun, and National Intelligence Organization (MIT) President İbrahim Kalın, also came to Saudi Arabia.

ASSAD AT THE SUMMIT

Syrian President Bashar Assad also arrived in Saudi Arabia to attend the summit. At King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, he was welcomed by Deputy Emir of Riyadh Prince Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz, Regional Secretary Faysal bin Abdulaziz bin Ayyaf, Chargé d'Affaires of the Kingdom's Embassy in the Syrian Arab Republic Abdullah El Haris, Syria's Ambassador to the Kingdom Ayman Susan, the regional police chief Major General Mansur bin Nasir Al Uteybi, and royal protocol deputy Fehd El Suheyil.

BOTH LEADERS IN THE SAME FRAME

During the summit, Erdoğan and Assad were captured in the same frame when leaders posed for a group photo. No official statement was made regarding a possible meeting between Erdoğan and Assad in Riyadh.

ERDOĞAN HAD MADE A MEETING PROPOSAL TO ASSAD

In a statement made before his departure to New York in September, President Erdoğan mentioned that he had requested to meet with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad to "normalize" relations on the sidelines of UN activities. The two countries officially severed all relations in 2011 after the outbreak of the Syrian conflict.

ASSAD SAID, "THE WITHDRAWAL OF SOLDIERS IS NOT A PRECONDITION"

In a statement made in recent months, Assad expressed that the efforts to improve relations with Turkey had "not yielded any concrete results so far." He stated that the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers was not a precondition to start negotiations, saying, "Despite the seriousness and willingness of the mediators, the initiatives have not produced any results worth mentioning."