A UN-hosted peace conference on Syria must work to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power because of his culpability for tens of thousands of deaths, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in Tokyo yesterday.
“In Geneva 2, we must make sure that ... all the measures will not fail ... so that we can [bring] in an era without Bashar al-Assad,” he said, referring to peace talks planned later this month in Switzerland.
The Syrian conflict is estimated to have claimed more than 130,000 lives, and has forced millions more to flee their homes.
“A person who has allowed that to happen still remaining at the top of the country cannot be accepted,” Erdogan said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has started sending out invitations to the so-called Geneva 2 peace talks, but al-Assad’s key ally, Iran, was not on the first list, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
That could help pave the way for the opposition National Coalition, which has repeatedly stipulated that Iran must not be invited, to participate.
The 30 countries invited to the Geneva talks include Saudi Arabia, a major backer of the Syrian opposition, the five UN Security Council permanent members, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida is also expected to attend.
“In the Geneva 1 there were several issues that were taken up and in the Geneva 2 we will make sure that these will not fail... It is very important that Japan takes part in this,” Erdogan said.
The Coalition, which re-elected Ahmad Jarba as its leader on Sunday, was to discuss yesterday whether to attend the talks, although a key group — the Syrian National Council — has already announced a boycott.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are to meet on Monday in a bid to decide Iran’s role in ending the nearly three-year-old war, Haq said.
Erdogan is on a three-day visit to Japan. He was speaking at lecture hosted by the Nikkei Shimbun and the Turkish embassy in Tokyo.
In related news, Syrian activists say a government airstrike on Monday killed 10 civilians in a rebel-held town in the north.
The Aleppo Media Center and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights yesterday said that the dead in the strike on the town of Bzaa in Aleppo Province included children.
Additional reporting by AP
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS