Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad said he would not meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the latter’s terms, reiterating his insistence on ignoring Ankara’s security concerns regarding terror groups close to its borders.

"The meeting cannot happen under Erdoğan's conditions," Assad said in an excerpt of an interview to be aired later on Wednesday on Sky News Arabia, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Assad’s remarks come as Ankara and Damascus have been attempting a rapprochement after a decade of frozen ties.

NATO member Türkiye has backed political and armed opposition to Assad during the 12-year civil war and sent its troops into the country's north to fight terrorist groups like the PKK, its Syrian affiliate, the YPG, and Daesh. It is also hosting more than 3.5 million refugees from its neighbor.

Since 2016, Turkish cross-border operations have helped liberate Syria’s northern regions from terrorism and enable the peaceful resettlements of residents.

Turkish officials have recently been floating the idea of cooperating with Damascus on counterterrorism efforts as the PKK/YPG still controls much of the war-torn country’s east, making it impossible for Assad to establish territorial integrity. The Assad regime, however, has frequently denounced Türkiye’s operations.

While relations began to thaw after the Feb. 6 earthquakes that killed more than 56,000 people combined in both countries and the sides, with Damascus allies Russia and Iran in tow, have resumed normalization talks since, while Assad has insisted Ankara’s withdrawal from Syrian territory was the only way a normalization could be achieved.

The Turkish president in the meantime has reiterated his willingness to normalize ties while emphasizing Türkiye would not bow to the regime’s demands of leaving northern Syria "as long as terrorists are near our borders."

"The door is open to Assad but their approach is important. Assad wants Türkiye out of Northern Syria. This is out of the question. We are fighting terrorism there," Erdoğan told reporters last month.

He also said that he wondered whether Assad would tell the same thing to "other countries." He did not elaborate, but Erdoğan was clearly referring to the United States, which maintains a presence in the same region where it openly supports the YPG/PKK under the pretext of fighting Daesh.

Thanks to U.S. help worth millions of dollars, the YPG has grown stronger in northeastern Syria much of which, along with the PKK, it still controls. It has further illegally seized oil fields in Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir el-Zour districts, something Türkiye has repeatedly condemned.

Any normalization between Ankara and Damascus would reshape the decadelong Syrian war. Turkish backing has been vital to sustaining moderate Syrian opposition in their last significant territorial foothold in the northwest after Assad defeated opponents across the rest of the country, aided by Russia and Iran.

In the latest quadrilateral meeting in Kazakhstan’s Astana between Foreign Ministry delegations in June, Türkiye, Russia, Iran and Syria condemned the actions of nations supporting "terrorist entities" in northeastern Syria. The guarantor countries reject "illegitimate self-rule initiatives" in Syria implemented under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

Assad, who had been politically isolated since the war began, was also welcomed back into the Arab League in May as regional capitals gradually reestablished ties with his government.