Baladi - Agencies
"Turkey will not watch the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people in Syria to further the regime’s interests," Turkey's President tweeted in Russian, Turkish, English and Arabic on Friday.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would neither watch from the sidelines nor participate in such a game "if the world turns a blind eye to the killing of tens of thousands of innocent people [in Syria]”.
Erdogan's remarks came after his meeting Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the Iranian capital Tehran to discuss joint efforts as part of the Astana peace process and political efforts for finding a lasting solution to the Syrian conflict.
Erdogan said the importance Turkey attaches to Friday’s trilateral summit "reflects Turkey’s care for the future of our Syrian brothers and sisters".
Turkey clearly stated during the Tehran meeting that resorting to methods that disregard civilian lives "would only play into the hands of terrorists," Erdogan said.
Erdogan said the Idlib issue must be resolved in line with the Astana process and without giving rise to pain, new tensions or more suffering.
On the contrary, the Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Tehran summit "a ceasefire would be pointless as it would not involve Islamist militant groups."
Idlib is the last large stronghold for the Syrian opposition factions, and some Islamic militants.
Bashar al-Assad backed by Russia is preparing for a large scale offensive in Idlib, the home of more than 3 million civilians including more than 1 million children.
The United Nations has warned that a military operation in Idlib would cause a huge humanitarian catastrophe.
Source: Anadolu agency + Baladi News