Moscow

The Kremlin has denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on March 5 to discuss the Syrian situation.

"Putin has other work plans for March 5," Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday while commenting on a possible summit of Russian, Turkish, German and French leaders in Istanbul amid rising tensions in Syria's northwestern Idlib province.

However, Peskov said that Russia and Turkey are maintaining working communications at the expert level, primarily to discuss the crisis in Idlib, where Turkish armed forces are clashing with Syrian government troops, Xinhua reported.

Last week, Erdogan said the quartet summit on the Idlib crisis would be held on March 5, and Peskov said later that Putin supported the idea of holding such a four-party meeting.

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