Erdogan: Syrian President at dead end

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is walking down "a dead-end street" and will inevitably be held accountable for his actions in suppressing anti-government protests, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned yesterday. Erdogan also said Turkey was preparing for a new initiative on Syria together with the broader international community to stand up to Damascus. "We will launch a new initiative with countries that stand by the Syrian people instead of the regime," Erdogan told his deputies yesterday during a parliamentary meeting. Turkey will continue to support efforts of the Arab League, he said without providing details. Erdogan denounced Russia and China for vetoing a recent UN Security Council resolution on Syria, saying they had given al-Assad a "license to kill." With the failure at the UN Security Council, Turkey has moved to enhance the Arab League’s efforts as part of the "international community’s conscience," a Turkish diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily News yesterday, adding that the initiative did not include military action. There are different ideas in the international arena, such as the "friends of democratic Syria," and Turkey’s move was not an alternative but a parallel effort to those, the diplomat said. "There is a need for a broader platform on the Syrian issue, including more than just regional countries, the Arab League and Turkey," another Turkish official told the Daily News. Turkey is maintaining diplomatic contacts with key international actors and institutions that could be involved in the initiative, and the goal of the initiative is different to the one in Libya or in Iraq as it did not aim at changing the Syrian regime or launching a military operation, the official said.