AGL 38.11 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.13%)
AIRLINK 137.90 Increased By ▲ 3.71 (2.76%)
BOP 9.33 Increased By ▲ 0.48 (5.42%)
CNERGY 4.73 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.85%)
DCL 8.90 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (2.65%)
DFML 39.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-0.96%)
DGKC 85.36 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.25%)
FCCL 35.14 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (0.69%)
FFBL 75.57 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.04%)
FFL 12.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.31%)
HUBC 109.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.05%)
HUMNL 14.65 Increased By ▲ 0.55 (3.9%)
KEL 5.45 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.93%)
KOSM 7.96 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (2.71%)
MLCF 41.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-0.15%)
NBP 70.90 Increased By ▲ 1.20 (1.72%)
OGDC 196.70 Increased By ▲ 3.08 (1.59%)
PAEL 27.11 Increased By ▲ 0.90 (3.43%)
PIBTL 7.50 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.08%)
PPL 169.01 Increased By ▲ 5.16 (3.15%)
PRL 26.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.19%)
PTC 20.13 Increased By ▲ 0.66 (3.39%)
SEARL 87.30 Increased By ▲ 2.90 (3.44%)
TELE 7.88 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.38%)
TOMCL 35.50 Increased By ▲ 1.45 (4.26%)
TPLP 8.97 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (2.87%)
TREET 17.20 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.12%)
TRG 59.45 Decreased By ▼ -1.55 (-2.54%)
UNITY 31.75 Increased By ▲ 2.79 (9.63%)
WTL 1.38 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.73%)
BR100 10,849 Increased By 73.1 (0.68%)
BR30 32,719 Increased By 484.5 (1.5%)
KSE100 100,886 Increased By 803.1 (0.8%)
KSE30 31,308 Increased By 115 (0.37%)

It's too early to decide whether a political transition in Syria for ending its civil war will include President Bashar al-Assad, a Turkish official said Thursday, emphasising the Syrian leader should have no long-term political future. Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has opposed Assad throughout the conflict, backing the opposition seeking to oust him and accusing the Syrian leader of war crimes.
But Ankara is now a key player in efforts to end the war along with Russia and Iran, even though Moscow and Tehran have been Assad's main allies and helped tipped the conflict in his favour. Mahir Unal, spokesman of Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told foreign reporters at a briefing that the issue of Assad was still a red line for Turkey.
But he added: "The process will show whether there will be a transition with Assad, or without Assad, and the negotiations will make this clear." But he added that "Assad cannot continue to be a political actor who remains" on the scene after a transition. Unal was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Erdogan in Sochi for their first ever three way summit on the Syrian crisis.
The Sochi summit agreed on holding a congress of Syrian national dialogue to seek a political solution. A further possible stumbling block could be the role in the congress of Syrian Kurdish militia who control much of northern Syria but are seen as a terror group by Turkey.
Unal said that Turkey's two other "red lines" for Syria were the preservation of its territorial integrity and not having the Democratic Union Party (PYD) - the political wing of the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia - involved in peace talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Thursday acknowledged Turkey's reservations but said this would not stand in the way of the congress.

Comments

Comments are closed.