Bashar Assad visited his forces on the front lines in Idlib, where he called Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a thief and accused Turkey of stealing territory in a military offensive in northeast Syria.
This is the first visit by Assad to the northern province, where his forces have this year been trying to wrest control from opposition groups, since the beginning of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
Assad called Erdoğan a “thief who robbed factories, wheat and fuel and is today stealing territory”.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, its third military incursion into northern Syria since 2016, on Oct. 9. Turkish forces already control sizable territories in the northwest of the country seized in two previous operations.