Putin, Erdogan may meet in Moscow next week: Kremlin

• But the Kremlin did not confirm that such a multilateral summit would involve France and Germany in a four-way meeting, and instead indicated a tripartite summit with Iran could be planned.
• The attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces took place late Thursday in the northwestern province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.
• In January, Putin travelled to Turkey to inaugurate a natural gas pipeline with Erdogan.

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan may meet in Moscow next week, the Kremlin said Friday, after a major spike in tensions over Syria.

"A possibility of a meeting at the highest level in Moscow on March 5 or 6 is being worked out at the moment," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Erdogan last week said he would hold a summit with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany on March 5 to discuss the escalating violence in Syria's last rebel enclave of Idlib.

But the Kremlin did not confirm that such a multilateral summit would involve France and Germany in a four-way meeting, and instead indicated a tripartite summit with Iran could be planned.

Earlier Friday, Putin and Erdogan held crisis phone talks after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed by Syrian fire, triggering fears of a dangerous new escalation of tensions.

The attack by Russian-backed Syrian forces took place late Thursday in the northwestern province of Idlib, where President Bashar al-Assad is waging a bloody campaign to oust rebels from their last holdout.

Tensions between the two countries have flared in recent days, with Damascus ally Russia accusing rebel-backer Turkey of supporting "terrorists" and Ankara urging Moscow to stop the regime violating a ceasefire.

Ankara and Moscow have forged closer cooperation after overcoming a major rupture in 2015 following the downing of a Russian fighter jet.

In September 2018, they agreed to create a "demilitarised zone" around Syria's Idlib region in a bid to avert a military assault on the last rebel and jihadist bastion in the country.

In January, Putin travelled to Turkey to inaugurate a natural gas pipeline with Erdogan.