Turkey seeks new UN security council resolution on Syria

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing as part of his talks in China, and held separate meetings with Chairman of the standing Committee of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping. Jintao warmly welcomed Erdogan to their meeting at the Chinese National Assembly and said that he was pleased to have him in China. Speaking to reporters and Turkish and Chinese delegations, Jintao said, "Prime Minister Erdogan has a very busy agenda on his visit in our country. I believe that his visit will develop the cooperation between our two nations and further improve our strategic partnership." Erdogan also extended an invitation from President Abdullah Gul to Jintao to visit Turkey in June, and replied questions of reporters. Touching upon the incident on the Syrian border on Monday which left two people dead and at least five wounded, Erdogan accused the Syrian regime of border violation and warned that Turkey would "use its rights as guaranteed by international law." Erdogan added that Turkey would do what other countries would do in accordance with international law, in the event of a border violation, and that Turkey would make a necessary assessment [of the shooting by Syrian forces] with regards to this border violation. In reply to a question on the possibility of a buffer zone inside Syrian territory, Erdogan said that nothing had been ruled out, adding that Turkey would consider all options on the table. Erdogan reiterated that Syrian soldiers are even shooting fleeing people in the back, regardless of whether they are women or children, adding, "What we want, as a country which has a nine to 10-kilometer-long border with Syria and close relations with the Syrian people, is an end to the bloodshed and deaths in Syria. This is what we want. We could not make this clear to the Syrian regime. They did not want to understand this." Erdogan also said he thought the UN Security Council should present a new package on Syria at this stage, adding, "For that to happen, the necessary meetings are going to be held. We will demand that they [UNSC members] take whatever steps they ought to under these circumstances." In a change to his planned schedule, Erdogan also decided on Tuesday to fly to Riyadh directly from China to have talks with Saudi officials following the end of his visit to China.