Turkey backs League decision on Syria: FM

KAYSERİ - Anatolia News Agency

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center, speaks at a ceremony marking Police Day at the police academy in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 9, 2012. AP photo

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu yesterday said Turkey would support a decision from the meeting of the Arab League scheduled for later today.

“I would like to express that we will support the decisions from the critical meeting of the Arab League this afternoon. We are in close consultations with the Arab League, but if the regional initiatives cannot produce results to end bloodshed in Syria, then it is only natural the issue becomes a humanitarian one which needs international attention and the attention of the United Nations,” Davutoğlu told reporters in the central city of Konya. Davutoğlu said he had a telephone meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby ahead of the meeting, adding the goal was to make sure that human rights violations and massacres in Syria came to an end.

“We hope the problem would not take such a dimension and the Syrian government stops this unjust fight against its own people. But if it does not and the humanitarian tragedy continues to prompt the U.N. to step in, we are ready to work with the U.N.,” he said.

Davutoğlu said he was scheduled to visit Russia on Jan. 24 for consultations over the Syrian issue. Davutoğlu also said he held talks with Iran on the developments of Syria.