1-Free elections in Syria can end violence, says PM Erdoğan
31 March 2012 / EKREM DUMANLI, MASHHAD/İSTANBUL
“We talked about Syria with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. We don't differ in our approach toward Syria. He also wants the deaths to end,” Erdoğan said.
“A ballot box should be placed in front of the Syrian people with the correct time and conditions. Whoever the people want to see at the helm, they will be accepted. The question of who will succeed President Bashar al-Assad is moot. Whoever the people of Syria want will be in office.”
He said Iran might succeed in convincing Bashar to hold elections within six months, and Turkey can talk to the opposition.
Erdoğan said the elections should be fair, transparent and open to international monitoring. “If necessary, OSCE or regional countries can send observers. If Assad displays a positive approach, we will wait patiently, but the deaths must come to an end as quickly as possible.”
The prime minister also noted that he was optimistic that a settlement in Syria will be reached soon. “The two important developments are the idea of elections and that there is a united consensus against an intervention from outside. There can't be a second Libya syndrome,” he told the journalists on the plane. He said there shouldn't be any military intervention in Syria without a UN resolution.
He also noted that the US, the UN, Russia and Iran are all important actors in the process. He said Russia was positive about the prospect of an election in Syria, as is Iran. And the US is not interested in an intervention in Syria.
Erdoğan also spoke about the bilateral ties between Iran and Turkey. “Our trade volume is $16 billion. If it weren't for the international sanctions, this would have been $20 billion. If we diversify, we can close the trade gap with Iran. We are thinking of using the model of a preferential trade agreement. They will purchase certain products from Turkey. And the energy ministers will work out a solution for natural gas and oil prices.”
The prime minister also gave information on his talks with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the country's nuclear program. “Khamanei says, ‘Our religion doesn't allow weapons of mass destruction. Nuclear weapons are too expensive to work as good deterrents.' Israel has 250-300 nuclear warheads. This is never discussed. Iran says it won't develop nuclear weapons. We don't know, only God knows that. Khamenei is a respected person who is open to the world. There is his word. Ahmedinejad also says the country's only concern is energy.”
Erdoğan also said a possible attack from Israel on Iran would have disastrous results. “It won't be anything like the US-Iraq war. Israel should not attack Iran,” he said.
2-Erdoğan will make first visit to China as prime minister
Erdoğan, expected to be accompanied by a large delegation of businessmen, will begin his visit to China in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Anatolia news agency reported on Friday. In 2003, he visited China in his role as the chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
After visiting Xinjiang, Erdoğan will proceed to Beijing, where he will hold high-level meetings. Shanghai will be Erdoğan's last stop in China.
Lu Jian of the West Asian and North African Affairs Department of China's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Turkey and China should have more say in the affairs of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank with their booming economies.
Lu said China would like to cooperate with Turkey on regional issues, where Turkey's influence has increased.
China opposed Middle Eastern countries' possession of nuclear power, said Lu, who noted that China was trying to accelerate a solution to the controversy over Iran's nuclear program by cooperating with the international community.
"Some countries have imposed unilateral embargoes and sanctions on Iran. Using force or threatening to escalate tension will delay a solution," Lu said.
3-Syria's Assad demands opponents halt attacks
In brazen attacks, gunmen kidnapped a high-ranking military pilot outside the capital and assassinated two army colonels in the country's business hub on Thursday, in what appeared to be part of a stepped-up campaign by the battered opposition against the symbols of Assad's power.
The violence underlined the Syrian government's predicament: Acceptance and implementation of the UN plan, which calls for a full cease-fire, risks spelling the end of an autocratic regime which has relied largely on brute force to stay in power over the past four decades.
Assad's condition of an express promise from the opposition to stop attacks could complicate Annan's attempts to bring an end to more than a year of violence that the UN says has killed more than 9,000 people.
The opposition has cautiously welcomed Annan's six-point plan, but it is also deeply skeptical Assad will carry it out, believing he has accepted it just to win time while his forces continue their bloody campaign to crush the uprising. Armed rebels are unlikely to stop fighting unless offensives by security forces halt. It is also difficult for rebel forces to uniformly stop fighting since there is no central command structure.
Last year, Assad agreed to an Arab-brokered peace plan similar to Annan's, pledging to work with observers who traveled to Syria on a mission to end the crackdown. But the regime failed to pull out its tanks from towns and cities, saying the country was under attack from the armed groups, and the bloodshed has escalated sharply since the League halted its observer mission on Jan. 28.
That failure tempered reaction to Assad's promises Thursday.
At an Arab League summit in the Iraqi capital, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby discussed the Syrian crisis and Annan's mission and they agreed "that it was imperative for president Assad to match his commitments with action," the U.N. spokesman's office said.
Arab leaders at the summit issued a resolution calling on Assad's regime to "immediately implement" Annan's proposals. The plan calls for Damascus to immediately stop troop movements and use of heavy weapons in populated areas and to commit to a daily two-hour halt in fighting to allow humanitarian access and medical evacuations. It also calls for a full cease-fire to be supervised by the U.N. so that all parties can discuss a political solution.
In comments carried on Syria's state news agency, Assad said "Syria will spare no effort to make (Annan's) mission a success and hopes it would return security and stability to the country."
But he added that the UN envoy must "deal with the elements of the crisis in a comprehensive way" and get a commitment from armed groups to cease their "terrorist acts" against the government.
"To make Annan's mission a success, he should focus on drying up the sources that support terrorism against Syria," Assad added.
Throughout the crisis, Assad's regime has held that it faces not a popular uprising against his rule but a campaign of violence by terrorists.
The presence of the tanks along with security forces and snipers shooting to disperse protests has largely succeeding in preventing demonstrators from recreating the fervor of Egypt's Tahrir Square, where demonstrators occupied a central square and stayed there.
It is not clear how Assad can abide by Annan's plan without risking a similar situation or losing control over cities recently recovered from rebel control by the military.
Syria's uprising began a year ago with peaceful anti-Assad protests, which were met with a fierce crackdown by security forces. Since then, army defectors and protesters have taken up arms, initially to protect protesters. But as the bloodshed has risen, they have turned to seizing pro-opposition neighborhoods, towns and areas and launching attacks on government forces, usually raids on checkpoints or army convoys.
The new attacks Thursday were particularly bold.
In Aleppo, Syria's largest city, gunmen fatally shot two army colonels in the downtown Bab al-Hadid traffic circle in broad daylight. The state news agency SANA said the four attackers belonged to an "armed terrorist group." The officers, identified as Abdel-Karim al-Rai and Fuad Shaban, were on their way to work.
In eastern Ghouta, a suburb a few kilometers (miles) from Damascus, gunmen kidnapped pilot Mohammad Omar al-Dirbas, a brigadier, while on his way to work, SANA said. The agency did not say where the three worked or what their positions were.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Also Thursday, rebels ambushed an army truck and killed two soldiers in the central province of Hama, activists said. Fresh clashes also broke out between government troops and army defectors in the north and south.
Assad, in his comments Thursday, accused regional countries of funding and arming "terrorists" in Syria and cited the assassinations as proof that they did not want a peaceful settlement to the crisis.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five civilians were killed in army raids on rebellious villages in Idlib province along Syria's northern border with Turkey. The activist group also reported clashes in the southern town of Dael.
"The security situation is very hard, with snipers on the roofs," said Adel al-Omari by telephone from the town. "It is very dangerous here, and you can't leave your house. Anyone who moves is targeted."
The Observatory said security forces killed at least 16 civilians across Syria on Thursday, while another group, the Local Coordination Committees, put the day's death toll at 31, including a child and two women.
Activist claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government rarely comments on clashes and has barred most news media from working in the country.
Also Thursday, Britain said it was allocating 500,000 pounds (US$795,000) to supply non-lethal aid to Syria's opposition, pledging assistance to groups inside the country for the first time ahead of international talks this weekend on how best to support the nation's rebels.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the offer of new funds includes an "agreement in principle" to provide support to opposition members inside Syria. Until now, Britain has supplied assistance to exiles in the West and opponents of Assad's regime in Syria's neighboring countries, amid concern over the practicalities of delivering items into Syria and fears that equipment could end up in the hands of extremists.
Catitan Sut:
Ketiga-tiga artikel yang telah di-paste-kan dalam posting ini dapat mengambarkan kecerdasan politik Erdogan, dia tidak membelakangi masaalah tetapi dia berdepan dengan masaalah dengan keyakinan tersendiri dan dengan constructive strategies.
Syria mendapat dukungan di rantaunya dari Iran secara terus-menerus, sokongan Hezbullah Lubnan sebenarnya hanyalah furu' kepada sokongan Iran.
Ketika Istanbul menjadi tuan-rumah untuk siri pertemuan pemimpin pembangkang Syria dalam rangka mereka menentang Bashar, Erdogan mempunyai kekuatan untuk Ke Tehran bertemu Ali Khamenie dan Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yang merupakan penyokong kuat Bashar. Dia dapat menemukan titik persamaan dengan mereka, iaitu rakyat Syria lebih berhak untuk menentukan siapa pemimpin mereka; suatu proses pemilihan pemimpin di Syria perlu kepada keterbukaan dan ketelusan, keputusan rakyatnya perlu dihormati. Erdogan bercakap dalam istilah dan bahasanya, yang juga istilah dan bahasa yang sentiasa digunakan oleh pemimpin Iran. Apa lagi yang boleh diperselisihkan......
Kemudian beliau ke China, bertemu penduduk Islam China dan pemimpin utama China di Beijing. Message-nya jelas, dia perlu dilihat sebagai salah seorang pemimpin Ummah Islam, yang bererti dia juga memerhati kebajikan ummah di China. Pemimpin di Beijing juga merupakan taulan Bashar di peringkat antarabangsa, selain Russia. Jadi kunjungan Erdogan ke Bejing mungkin mampu mengubah atau sekurangnya mengendurkan sokongan China kepada Bashar. Seakan Erdogan mengepung saki-baki sokongan kepada Bashar di peringkat antarabangsa secara diplomasi tanpa banyak ketegangan...
Di dalam Syria pula, tentangan terhadap Bashar semakin meningkat. Bashar mungkin tiada pilihan kecuali perlu bertolak-ansur dengan rancangan damai yang dicadangkan oleh Kofi Annan. Mesyuarat pihak pembangkang terus menerus diadakan di Istanbul, sekiranya Beijing dan Tehran pula tidak setegas sebelumnya dalam membela Bashar, maka percaturan Erdogan untuk rantau itu akan terlunas secara sendirinya, tanpa perlu penglibatan terus-menerus dari Istanbul. Ianya adalah langkah yang bijaksana untuk mengumpul pemimpin pembangkang di Istanbul, tidak di London, Geneva atau Washington. Dengan itu campur tangan kuasa barat secara direct dapat dipinggirkan sedikit sebanyak, pihak-pihak yang layak mewakili inspirasi rakyat Syria dapat dijemput.
Aduhai, sukarnya untuk kita menemui ahli politik yang sehalus ini perancangannya, semoga Allah memberi taufiq dan hidayah kepada pemimpin-pemimpin ummah dalam mentadbir agar Islam dan ummah akan mendapat natijah yang sebaik mungkin. Dengan limpah rahmat-Mu ya Allah
Semuga ramai lagi lahir pemimpin seperti ini di dunia Islam.
ReplyDeleteSemuga Malaysia juga akan melahirkan seorang pemimpin begini. Kita sudah ada calon sebenarnya iaitu Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim.
Untuk merealisasikan cita2 ini, maka kita perlu beri kemenangan kepada PR dalam PRU13 nanti.
Syarat utama menjadi pemimpin hebat pembela umat seperti ini ialah tidak takut kepada bini.
Isteri sebagai tulang belakang pemimpin hebat, bukan beban yg mematahkan tulang belakang suami.
Kesian najiibb tau !