Ricciardone urges Turkey to make a decisionus

Ambassador Francis J. Ricciardone sent messages to Ankara before the Friends of Syria meeting and during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Iran. Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul yesterday, Ricardione said the US remained in conversation with the Turkish government on reducing oil imports from Iran. "We certainly hope Turkey will reduce its oil imports from Iran, but we have not come to a conclusion about Turkey's decision in this regard," Ricciardione said. Riccardione added that his clear understanding from speaking with Turkish colleagues was that they shared the same goal with Turkey about Iran's nuclear program. "Turkey does not wish to see Iran as a nuclear state and neither does the US. We want to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon state," he said. Ricciardone also said that military intervention in Syria was the last resort and an undesirable one. Riccardione said the "dangerous, unstable, morally unacceptable situation and killing in Syria has to stop," but added "military intervention [was] not necessarily needed now." "Together we will think through how we will deal with this dreadful situation. Military force is absolutely the last resort and an undesirable one. This is a situation in which there are no easy answers, no simple answers, no magic can be produced but we are working on it together," Riccardione said. Nevertheless, Riccardione opposed the idea of arming the opponent powers in Syria, "The UN is working hard to stop the violence, but putting in more arms would make the situation worse."