French President Emmanuel Macron said late Wednesday that French, British and German leaders will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan again early next year to discuss Syria, Libya and other issues.
"I'm very happy that we had a very useful meeting yesterday with the British prime minister, Chancellor [Angela] Merkel and President Erdoğan," Macron said at a news conference after the NATO leaders' summit in London.
The meeting, which helped clarify various issues, also "allowed us... to reaffirm our priority in fighting (Daesh), and our common commitment to the refugee issue and a political solution to the Syrian conflict," the French leader said.
Erdoğan on Tuesday met with Macron, Merkel and host Boris Johnson at the residence of the British prime minister at 10 Downing Street.
The leaders discussed the latest developments in Syria and exchanged views on Turkey's operation targeting the PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian branch, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) terrorist group, in northern Syria.
The meeting "started a very useful dialogue and clarified certain misunderstandings with Turkey," Macron said.
However, the French leader reiterated his opposition to classifying the YPG as a terror group.
"We're combating the PKK and those groups that are fighting against Turkey directly. But we're not equating these different political and military groups to each other. So, we disagree on this. And that has not been changed," said Macron.
However, he added, "When... certain groups do have terrorist intentions on Turkish soil against the Turkish country, (for us) there's no ambiguity about the fact that we will fight against those groups," he added.
Turkey, on Oct. 9, launched Operation Peace Spring to eliminate YPG terrorists from northern Syria east of the Euphrates River in order to secure Turkey's borders, aid in the safe return of Syrian refugees and ensure Syria's territorial integrity.
Under two separate deals with the U.S. and Russia, Turkey paused the operation to allow for the withdrawal of YPG terrorists from the planned Syria safe zone.
Ankara wants YPG terrorists to withdraw from the region so a safe zone can be created to pave the way for the safe return of some 2 million refugees.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
