Britain: Syria will be held to account for shooting down Turkish plane

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Sunday condemned Syria's shooting down of a Turkish jet as "outrageous" and said Britain was ready to support robust action against Syria by the UN Security Council. "The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can act with impunity. It will be held to account for its behavior. The UK stands ready to pursue robust action at the UN Security Council," Hague said. "This outrageous act underlines how far beyond accepted behavior the Syrian regime has put itself and I condemn it wholeheartedly," he said. Hague met last week with UN and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan for talks on plans for an international summit, while British officials discussed the issue in Geneva on Saturday with members of Annan's team. Since it became clear that the Turkish F4 jet that disappeared over the Mediterranean on Friday was shot down by Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has spoken on the phone to Hague, and his counterparts from the US, France, Saudi Arabia as well as Syria's allies Russia and Iran. Davutoglu also spoke to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi and the EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton. In Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Saturday that the recent defection of a Syrian pilot to Jordan and the downing of the Turkish jet showed that the Syrian conflict could have far-reaching repercussions. "Our main concern is the spillover of the crisis into neighborhood countries. No country is immune from this spillover," he said. "If this conflict were to turn into all-out sectarian or civil war, Iraq would be affected, Lebanon would be affected, Jordan would not be immune, [and] Turkey could be [affected]." German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said he was "greatly worried" by the incident, urged a thorough investigation and welcomed Turkey's cool-headed reaction in the incident's immediate aftermath. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was following the situation closely and hoped the incident would be "handled with restraint by both sides through diplomatic channels," a spokesman said.