PM expects ‘positive’ Syria steps from US

BALI/AMMAN

PM Erdoğan is seen in his jet before taking off from Esenboğa airport to Indonesia. Erdoğan says Turkey has some expectations of the US. AA photo

Turkey has some expectations from the Obama administration regarding some positive developments in the Middle East, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday, referring to the civil war in Syria.

“Actually it will be wrong to say that minds are not locked on the U.S. elections. There are some expectations from the United States regarding positive developments in the region after the elections. We have these expectations too,” Erdoğan told reporters in Indonesia. “It is true that we did not press the U.S. too much because of the elections. But now, as an important member of NATO, I believe it is necessary that the U.S. handle this issue differently,” the prime minister said. Meanwhile, Britain announced yesterday it would begin direct talks with Syria’s armed opposition groups, as Prime Minister David Cameron called for a new international approach to ending the conflict, urging the U.S. to join the U.K. in opening direct talks with rebels.

Priority with the US

Cameron said he would press newly re-elected U.S. President Obama to work on a stronger international approach to the crisis. “We need more pressure at the U.N., more help for the refugees, more help for the opposition, more action to turn the screw on this dreadful regime. And that is my priority with the newly elected president.”