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| Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu: warning |
Turkey said yesterday it could tolerate no more bloodshed in Syria and it was ready to take action with Arab powers if President Bashar al-Assad failed to take steps towards ending the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference that he hoped the Syrian government would give a positive response to Arab League plan on resolving the conflict.
“If it doesn’t, there are steps we can take in consultation with the Arab League,” he said. “I want to say clearly we have no more tolerance for the bloodshed in Syria. The attitude of friendly and fraternal countries on this subject is clear”.
The Arab League had set a Friday deadline for Syria to agree to comply or else face sanctions, including halting flights, curbing trade and stopping deals with the central bank.
Davutoglu said he was ready to attend a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers that could take place tomorrow, depending on Syria’s response. He was also consultating with the European Union, Nato and UN Security Council members.
Davutoglu also held talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, who had attended a meeting of
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People waiting to change empty cooking gas cylinders in the Syrian city of Homs yesterday |
Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo on Thursday.
Speaking alongside the Turkish minister, Judeh said he hoped Syria would sign a protocol to accept observers as a first step to ending the violence that has gripped the country for eight months.
“This is the collective wish of the Arab world and if they don’t, God forbid, we have to meet again,” he said.
Non-Arab Turkey, Syria’s largest trading partner and formerly a close friend, has strongly backed the stance taken by the Arab League towards Syria.
Turkey and Jordan both border Syria and potentially have a important part to play if French proposals for a humanitarian zones in Syria gather support.
This week Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan bluntly told Assad to quit or risk facing the same fate as Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed last month after being caught by rebels.
Meanwhile, Russia has expressed its opposition to sanctions against Syria’s government and said it needs more information about the French proposal for humanitarian zones in the violence-torn country before taking a position.
“At the current stage, what is needed is not resolutions, not sanctions, not pressure, but internal Syrian dialogue,” a foreign ministry spokesman told a weekly news conference.
Russia teamed up with China last month to veto a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s government for violence the UN says has killed more than 3,500 people.
Moscow has urged the government to implement reforms, but has rejected pressure from opposition groups to join international calls for Assad’s resignation and accused Western nations of trying to set the stage for armed intervention.
The Russian spokesman repeated those positions, saying Russia supported the Arab League’s call for a halt to the violence but that “radical opposition” groups with foreign support shared the blame.
“We believe that the most important tasks now are the unconditional halt to violence, whatever its source, and the intensification of the internal Syrian dialogue on the issues of democratic reforms in the country,” the spokesman said.
He said outside military intervention was “absolutely unacceptable” and that “human rights issues should under no conditions should be used as a pretext for interference in the internal affairs of states, in this case Syria”.