Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi meets Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara

Two-day visit follows talks on refugees with Bashar Al Assad in Damascus

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi was in Turkey on Tuesday. AFP

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday, as part of a two-day visit to the capital.

Mr Safadi also met his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. The two condemned Israeli "aggression" in the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank, and called for the immediate cessation of hostilities.

The issue of Syrian refugees also featured in Mr Safadi’s talks in Turkey on Tuesday.

“We agreed on working intensively together on finding a solution to the Syrian crisis,” Mr Safadi said after the meeting. As two of the countries who are one of the largest host countries of Syrian refugees, we agreed on the important point that the future of Syrian refugees lies in their own home country.

“There needs to be a concerted international effort in investing in the political, economic and humanitarian files in Syria to help the safe return of refugees."

Turkey hosts around 3.6 million Syrian refugees who fled to the country during its 12-year-long civil war, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long expressed the aim of repatriating as many who want to return as possible, while supporting those who wish to remain. Within parts of Syria held by Ankara-backed militia groups and accompanying Turkish forces, Turkey has also undertaken an effort to build housing for returnees.

The visit to Turkey comes a day after he met Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in Damascus. The issue of Syrian refugees was also high on the agenda during talks between the two.

Jordan, which shares a border with Syria and hosts 1.3 million Syrian refugees, played a crucial role in the once-pariah state's return to the Arab League. It hosted regional talks in May between Syrian, Saudi, Iraqi and Egyptian officials in an initiative to reach a political solution to the years-long crisis.

The meeting with Mr Al Assad “focused on the issue of refugee returns and the necessary measures to facilitate the voluntary return” of Syrians from Jordan, Amman said.

“We have offered everything we can to ensure them a dignified life,” Mr Safadi said at a news conference after the meeting.

The minister said that securing critical infrastructure and basic necessities would speed up voluntary returns, especially as international aid for refugees continues to decline.

Meanwhile, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths pushed the Security Council on Thursday to extend for 12 months its approval of a long-running humanitarian aid operation that delivers help to millions of people in north-west Syria from Turkey.

Authorisation by the 15-member council is needed because Syrian authorities did not agree to the UN operation, which has been delivering aid including food, medicine and shelter to opposition-controlled areas of Syria since 2014.

A crackdown by Mr Al Assad on pro-democracy protesters in 2011 led to civil war, with Russia backing the Assad regime and the US supporting the opposition. Millions of people have fled Syria, mostly to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.