MOSCOW: Syria’s information minister has blamed Turkey’s government for deadly car bombings near the Syrian border and branded Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan a “murderer”, state-run Russian TV company RT reported yesterday.
The bombings took place as prospects appeared to improve for diplomacy to try to end the war in Syria, after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference as soon as possible.
“All responsibility for what has happened lies with the Turkish government and Erdogan personally,” RT quoted Omran Zubi as saying in an interview with its Arabic-language channel.
“I demand his resignation as a murderer and an executioner. He has no right to build a political career on the blood of the Turkish and Syrian people,” RT quoted Zubi as saying.
It said he repeated a denial of Syrian involvement in car bombings that killed 46 people on Saturday in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli. Turkey has accused a group with links to Syrian intelligence of carrying out the attacks.
The car bombs increased fears that Syria’s civil war, in which a Syrian opposition group says more than 82,000 people have been killed since it began with a government crackdown on protests in March 2011, is dragging in neighbouring states.
The Kremlin said Putin would discuss Syria and other issues with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Russia today. An Israeli official confirmed Netanyahu’s trip.
Israel has asked Russia not to sell Syria an advanced air defence system, the S-300, which would help President Bashar Al Assad fend off any foreign military intervention.
Russia vehemently opposes military intervention in Syria and criticised Israeli air strikes this month.
Reuters
