Saturday, May 25, 2013

Davutoglu: "We are principled, we failed but we are hopeful!"

"... Davutoğlu puts countries in three categories regarding their positions on Syria: Those insistent on supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime, those who have not got a clear position, and those who take a “gradually escalating” stance against the escalating violence of al-Assad against his own people. He mentions only Turkey and the Arab League countries in this last category....
... and from a senior official of a country known for bombast (Mavi Marmara):
"... The second “failure of expectation” was related to the international reaction. “We never thought global actors would fail to take action in parallel with what they said. To declare the Syrian regime ‘illegitimate’ but doing almost nothing about it was something that we were unable to guess.”... If Geneva fails, mainly because of the Russian power-game with the Americans, Ankara would expect an increase in support for the Syrian opposition by the West..."
... and more 'restructuring' by the opposition:
As we talk now,” he said, “The Syria opposition is trying to restructure itself according to the needs of this new situation to get a result from the Geneva talks. The European Union is also going to meet for a new position regarding Syria which might involve an arms embargo.”... Foreign Minister Davutoğlu thinks the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria is now playing a “dangerous” game, in order to gain an upper hand before Geneva, which is why al-Assad and his allies have given so much importance to reclaiming the town of Qusair near the Lebanese border. Turkey has intelligence that there are currently more than 1,200 Hezbollah fighters supported by Iran, and Ankara is happy that Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war was mentioned by name and condemned in the joint statement of the Amman conference..."

No comments: