Turkey, GCC express concern over Syrian violence, hope for immediate transition

Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries at a ministerial level meeting on Saturday reiterated their concern regarding the continuation of bloodshed in Syria and urged Syria to implement an Arab League roadmap that was announced last Sunday to bring peace back to the country. Istanbul on Saturday hosted the fourth meeting of the Turkey-GCC High Level Strategic Dialogue Foreign Ministers' Meeting, where participants from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman voiced their opinions to Turkey on the developments in their region, while Syria remained at the top of the agenda throughout the session. Ministers agreed that "international efforts should be focused on bringing the bloodshed in Syria to an immediate end and paving the ground for the initiation of a political transition process in line with the legitimate demands and aspirations of the Syrian people," a joint written statement issued by Turkey's Foreign Ministry stated on Saturday. The statement also hailed the "tireless efforts" of the Arab League to establish peace in Syria and urged the Syrian administration to comply with the Arab League initiatives to allow for "a political transition which should reflect the will of the Syrian people." Last Sunday, the league announced a road map calling for embattled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to step down and leave his deputy in charge to arrange democratic elections in the country, while at the same time asking the stay of a group of monitors in Syria to be extended by another month, in the hope that the extension helped Syria to carry out reforms. Coinciding with the Turkey-GCC meeting, the Arab League announced on Saturday that it was suspending its mission in Syria, after the Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia decided to pull out their teams from the monitoring group in the belief that the group is not helping the situation in Syria, where dozens of people continue to be killed every day despite the group's existence in the country. The Arab League was expected on Sunday to take the issue to the UN chief in New York and ask for more support to pressure Bashar al-Assad into stepping down. The ministerial council also featured messages of stability and peace in the Middle East, starting with a commitment from the ministers to the "sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Iraq." The statement said the ministers underlined "the importance of Iraq's undertaking its responsibilities to enhance its unity, stability and prosperity and activate its role in building trust with neighboring countries on the basis of good neighborliness and non-interference in internal affairs." There was also an agreement between the parties with regards to Palestinian sovereignty on the international stage, since "a just comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East could be achieved only by the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian State with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of 1967 borders." The ministers agreed to gather for the fifth meeting in Bahrain, but no exact date was released. The High Level Strategic Dialogue was launched in Saudi Arabia in 2008 and the third meeting at a ministerial level was held in Kuwait in October 2010.