ISTANBUL/ANKARA – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he feared a U.S.-Russian ceasefire plan would do little more than benefit Bashar al-Assad and accused the West, Russia and Iran of only seeking to further their own interests.
The United States and Russia have announced plans for a cessation of hostilities in Syria to take effect starting on Saturday. But rebels backed by Saudi Arabia and Turkey have expressed doubts about the proposal, which excludes attacks by the Syrian army and its Russian backers on the jihadist groups Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
“The West, the United States, Russia, Iran, the European Union and United Nations have unfortunately not managed to stand tall by the honor of humanity,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara broadcast live on television.
“On the contrary, all these countries, because of their own calculations, have permitted, directly or indirectly, the killing of nearly half a million innocent people by the regime and its backers,” he said.
NATO member Turkey has grown increasingly frustrated by the international response to Syria’s five-year-old war.
The rebels fear Russia will use the exclusion of attacks on jihadists like Islamic State as a pretext to bomb them.
Syria’s opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), which groups Assad’s political and armed opponents, said on Monday it accepted “international efforts for a cessation of hostilities”, but only on the condition that previous demands including an end to blockades and the bombardment of civilians were fulfilled.
The grouping’s chief negotiator said on Wednesday it had yet to commit to the U.S.-Russian plan.
Source: Reuters,24 Feb 2016
