ISTANBUL: Turkey on Saturday said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should leave office "at some point" in the future but denied there was any kind of contact between Ankara and Damascus over ending the seven year civil war.
Ankara has been a prime foe of Assad throughout the conflict but has occasionally softened its rhetoric in the last months as Turkey strengthened cooperation with the regime’s main ally Russia.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, told journalists in Istanbul, that Assad was not the leader to unite Syria and had lost legitimacy.
But Kalin said there needed to be a "political transition in Syria", leading to a new constitution and elections.
"It is not going to be easy but that’s the ultimate goal to reach and at some point Assad will have to go," he added.
"Where exactly, at what point precisely Assad leaves, is something that will be answered as we go on, obviously," he said.
Kalin was speaking after Russia on Tuesday hosted a peace congress on Syria, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Erdogan expressing "satisfaction", according to the Kremlin.
Kalin said the Russian position has been "not so much protecting Assad personally but protecting the state institutions, state apparatus and the Syrian army and the regime elements". He said: "They want to make sure that the state doesn’t collapse completely in Syria."
from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2nxk939
No comments:
Post a Comment