Davutoglu attends a meeting of friends of Syria in Marakesh

Speaking to a group of Turkish reporters in Marrakech at the end of a meeting of Friends of Syria, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that a timetable had to be set up for Syria. Davutoglu also said that if the timetable in Syria did not reach success, assuming an attitude with sanctions would be required. Stating that the UN Security Council must make a decision on the matter and that joint UN and Arab League special envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi's initiative was a last chance, Davutoglu said, "Everyone now has an opportunity to assess the massacres of the Syrian regime in a more realistic way. This includes Russia." At the end of the ministerial meeting, the Friends of Syrian People group recognized Syria's new opposition coalition as "the legitimate representative of the Syrian people," reiterating that embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime has lost its legitimacy to govern Syria. The Friends of Syrian People group also urged Assad's allies to reconsider their support and stop arms supplies and called on some countries supporting the Syrian regime to review its positions referring to the possibility of resorting to the UN General Assembly for the adoption of a resolution under the "union of peace" in case the UNSC fails to adopt a resolution to end the Syrian people's sufferings. Furthermore, the countries attending the meeting said, "Any use of chemical weapons Syria will be abhorrent and that this would draw a serious response from the international community" and expressed their strong support for efforts to protect against the growing threat, including NATO's decision to augment Turkey's defense and allies' intent to deploy the Patriot air defense system to Turkey.