Erdoğan welcomes Trump’s remarks on 'military action in Syria,' voices readiness to support
ANKARA
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 6 said he welcomed remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump considering military action in Syria, as he voiced the country's readiness to support if required.
“I thank Trump [for his remarks] but they should not remain unfulfilled. If an action is really to be put forward, we are ready to do our part,” Erdoğan said in an interview with private broadcaster Kanal 7.
The president also said it was sad that Russian President Vladimir Putin doubted the Syrian regime's responsibility in the April 4 attack in Syria's Idlib province which killed scores of people.
"We have to make our decisions quickly. Please, let's learn who is the friend and who is the enemy, who is the virus in the region and take our steps accordingly," Erdoğan said.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also criticized Moscow for backing the Syrian regime regarding the attack.
"It is a serious mistake to defend such implementation no matter who it is and it is not right," Çavuşoğlu told in an interview with private broadcaster NTV.
The minister also noted that Astana and Geneva processes will lose their meaning if the regime attacks continue.
Trump told some members of the U.S. Congress late on April 6 that he is considering military intervention in Syria upon the deadly gas attack in Idlib that killed scores of people, according to CNN.
He also said "something should happen" with Assad after the attack, but stopped short of saying he should leave office, Reuters reported.
"I think what Assad did is terrible," Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.
"I think what happened in Syria is a disgrace to humanity and he’s there ,and I guess he’s running things, so something should happen," Trump said.
The Pentagon and the White House are also in detailed discussions on military options to respond to the attack, a U.S. official said on April 6, as reported by Reuters.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will presumably discuss the options when he meets with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Mattis is due in Florida later on April 6 as part of a prescheduled trip.
Trump also said on April 5 that the attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, "crosses many, many lines", an allusion to his predecessor Barack Obama's threat to topple Assad with air strikes if he used such weapons.
