Unal stresses too early to comment on possible with regime in Syria

Speaking at a press conference, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said that Turkey would likely upgrade its status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to observer state. "With regard to our work with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, of course we want to be an observer state that is a secondary category [for cooperation within the organization]. We want to enhance our cooperation with this organization within possible bounds," Unal said. In response to a question over an alleged Israeli air strike on a Syrian military research center in a Damascus suburb on Wednesday, Unal said no official information has arrived on the issue, while underlining that the incident showed how the situation in Syria was negatively influencing the region. "This indicates once more that the situation in Syria has now become complicated and bad, threatening regional and international peace," Unal noted, adding that it is too early to make any assessments on possible talks between Assad regime and opposition forces before seeing how Damascus would respond to the offer by Syria's main opposition group. Following the press conference, Unal turned over his duty to Deputy General Director for the Policy Planning Department Levent Gumrukcu to work as chief advisor to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu from now on.