TURKEY: Syrian FM says political solution can only end violence in Iraq

Record ID: 276250

  • Title: TURKEY: Syrian FM says political solution can only end violence in Iraq
  • Date: 2nd February 2007
  • Summary: SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER WALID MOUALEM ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE CAMERAMEN (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER WALID MOUALEM SAYING: "We believe the the use of force will not solve the problem. There needs to be a political solution which comes from Iraq which the neighbouring countries support. And this is what Syria has has said and this is what we have discuss
  • Embargoed: 17th February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA2ISY1HF1SXQQKR1DSHAZVN95J
  • Story Text: Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said on Wednesday (January 31) that only a political solution can end the violence and bloodshed in Iraq.
    Moualem made the comments during a visit to Ankara where he met with Turkish Political leaders, including his counterpart Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkish President Amed Bacden Sezer.
    "We believe the the use of force will not solve the problem. There needs to be a political solution which comes from Iraq which the neighbouring countries support. And this is what Syria has has said and this is what we have discussed with out friends in Ankara," Moualem told a news conference following his meeting with the Turkish president.
    "We see that the solution must include the building of the Iraqi armed forces and the Iraqi security services to nationalistic principles. This is also connected with two things, the disbanding the militias, and the schedule of the withdrawal of the foreign forces from Iraq," he added.
    The Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon bipartisan panel set up to evaluate U.S. policy, recommendation that Washington engage Iran and Syria as a means of avoiding outright civil war in Iraq.
    Turkey is keen to boost ties with Syria as it opposes the creation of a Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
    Turkey is worried that growing sectarianism in Iraq, its eastern neighbour, will cause the country to be split into three separate states.
    Ankara, a NATO ally of the United States, is especially worried about the possible emergence of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq that could stoke separatism among its own large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
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