Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested Russia and the US should pull their troops out of war-torn Syria after their leaders - Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump - said there was "no military solution" to the country's long-running conflict.
"I am having trouble understanding these comments," Erdogan was quoted by reporters as saying on Monday before he flew out to Russia's coastal city of Sochi for talks with Putin.
"If a military solution [in Syria] is out of the question, then those who say this [Russia and the US] should pull their troops out ... and steps for a political solution should be taken," he said.
Erdogan's comments came two days after the Kremlin released a statement, issued on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit in Vietnam, in which Putin and Trump agreed there was no military solution to the conflict in Syria.
They also called on all parties to take part in the Geneva process - diplomatic efforts to end Syria's conflict under the auspices of the United Nations.
Russia has been a major backer of Bashar al-Assad, while the US has been supporting the Syrian YPG Kurdish forces on the ground.
In his reported comments, Erdogan said neither Russia, nor the US would be pulling out of Syria soon.
"The United States said it would completely leave Iraq, but it didn't. The world is not stupid, some realities are being told differently and practiced differently," he said.
Commenting on Erdogan's reaction to the Turkish president's remarks, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said: "The question probably on Erdogan's mind is 'why am I not the one sponsoring the talks in Geneva?'
"The whole idea of this superpower logic, when it comes to Syria, we all know that Iran and Turkey are playing a far greater role and Turkey is not on the same wave as the US [in Syria]," added Bishara.
Sochi talks
Turkey, Russia and Iran have been brokering Syria talks in Kazakhstan's capital, Ankara - a separate process than the one in Geneva.
Just like Moscow, Tehran is a major military backer of Assad, whereas Turkey supports certain opposition groups seeking to overthrow him.
The Syrian conflict and bilateral trade were expected to be high on the agenda during the Putin-Erdogan meeting in Sochi, the fourth this year.
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from the Black Sea city, said Erdogan's visit was aimed at mending Turkey's "battered" relationship with Russia, something that has taken years to repair.
"They're still trying to rebuild a relationship that's taken a battering in recent times," he said.
"It started when the Turks shot down a Russian plane over southern Turkey, near the Syrian border, two years ago. Following that, the Russians put in a place a whole host of restrictions, a restriction of citizen movement, embargoes etc. They're trying to repair that.
"The relationship is now nearly back to how it was before the turmoil started."
Erdogan, however, still has concerns over Putin and Trump's comments and is also concerned by what's unfolding in Idlib province, our correspondent said.
Turkish troops pushed into Syria in August of last year in an effort to push ISIS away from its border and to stop the advance of Kurdish fighters.
"Russia has a fairly open dialogue with the YPG which Turkey considers a terrorist group, and Erdogan has raised concerns about that here in Sochi," Challands added.
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The meeting between Erdogan and Putin in Sochi [Reuters]
Al-Jazeera