After the statements of Bashar al-Assad and Erdogan.. America clarifies its position on countries normalizing their relations with the Syrian regime

 (CNN) -- US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Thursday described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as having "committed atrocities against his own people, and his forces have committed war crimes," and said Washington "will continue to discourage our partners around the world from normalizing relations with Syria." or improve the Assad regime.

"We will continue to adopt the principles of Security Council Resolution 2254, and we continue to believe that it constitutes the most appropriate basis for ending the civil war in a lasting way that respects and promotes the aspirations of the Syrian people," Price added, during a press conference.

He continued, "We, of course, do not know what the Assad regime could have done had it not been for the accountability measures that were imposed on it. We do not know what it would have done had it not been for the actions of the United States and the countries of the world to confiscate and destroy Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons."

He stressed, "We will continue to strengthen the accountability of the Assad regime, and we will continue to discourage our partners around the world from normalizing or improving relations with the regime." Ned Price described the civil war in Syria as "an absolute tragedy that Bashar al-Assad and his regime inflicted on the people of Syria."

It is noteworthy that the Syrian President stressed, earlier on Thursday, in the first comment on the Syrian-Turkish meetings, the importance of "ending the occupation" and "stopping support for terrorism", in reference to the Turkish military presence in Syria as well as the Turkish support for the Syrian opposition.

The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) quoted al-Assad as saying, "In order for these meetings to be fruitful, they must be based on prior coordination and planning between Syria and Russia in order to reach the tangible goals and results that Syria wants from these meetings, based on the state's national constants and principles." And the people are based on ending the occupation and stopping support for terrorism.”

Al-Assad’s statements came during his meeting with Alexander Lavrentiev, the special envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his accompanying delegation, where the two sides discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and the regional and international situations, according to SANA, which mentioned that Lavrentiev indicated that his country “positively evaluates the tripartite meeting that brought together defense ministers.” Syria, Turkey and Russia, and see the importance of following up and developing these meetings at the level of foreign ministers.

On December 29, the Syrian Ministry of Defense stated that the Syrian Minister of Defense and the Director of the Syrian General Intelligence Department had discussed with their Turkish counterparts in Moscow, with Russian participation, "many files", which is the highest level of meeting between Ankara and Damascus since 2011.

The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the defense ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey held tripartite talks in Moscow on December 28 to discuss ways to solve the Syrian crisis, combat terrorism and the refugee crisis.

On January 5, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he could meet with the Syrian president to "establish peace," as he put it.

Erdogan said: "After the meeting of the defense ministers of Syria and Turkey, the foreign ministers will meet together, and then as leaders, we will meet together." Erdogan added during a meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara: "What matters to us is peace in the region."