Posted August 12, 2012 10:51:28
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has praised Turkey for its response to the Syrian conflict and says the two countries will be working together to coordinate efforts to support Syrian rebels.
After a meeting with her Turkish counterpart in Istanbul, Ms Clinton said the two countries would establish a working group to coordinate military and political responses to the Syrian conflict.
"As we work to help the opposition inside Syria we are continuing to increase pressure from outside," she said.
Ms Clinton said the two countries should develop detailed operational planning on ways to assist the rebels fighting to topple president Bashar al-Assad.
But she said other measures – such as imposing a no-fly zone over rebel-held territory – needed greater in-depth analysis.
"Our intelligence services, our military have very important responsibilities and roles to play so we are going to be setting up a working group to do exactly that," she said.
"It is one thing to talk about all kinds of potential actions, but you cannot make reasoned decisions without doing intense analysis and operational planning."
She said plans needed to be made in case the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons to attack its opponents, and announced an additional $US5 million of aid to help the more than 50,000 Syrian refugees within Turkey.
"We have gone through this morning all kinds of issues, both before the inevitable fall of Assad and after, but we have to be very careful," she said.
"Our goal is to hasten the end of the bloodshed and the Assad regime."
In Syria itself, activists say 11 people have been killed in fighting in the capital, Damascus, while government forces continue to shell areas of city of Aleppo.
ABC/Reuters
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, turkey, syrian-arab-republic, united-states
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has praised Turkey for its response to the Syrian conflict and says the two countries will be working together to coordinate efforts to support Syrian rebels.
After a meeting with her Turkish counterpart in Istanbul, Ms Clinton said the two countries would establish a working group to coordinate military and political responses to the Syrian conflict.
"As we work to help the opposition inside Syria we are continuing to increase pressure from outside," she said.
Ms Clinton said the two countries should develop detailed operational planning on ways to assist the rebels fighting to topple president Bashar al-Assad.
But she said other measures – such as imposing a no-fly zone over rebel-held territory – needed greater in-depth analysis.
"Our intelligence services, our military have very important responsibilities and roles to play so we are going to be setting up a working group to do exactly that," she said.
"It is one thing to talk about all kinds of potential actions, but you cannot make reasoned decisions without doing intense analysis and operational planning."
She said plans needed to be made in case the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons to attack its opponents, and announced an additional $US5 million of aid to help the more than 50,000 Syrian refugees within Turkey.
"We have gone through this morning all kinds of issues, both before the inevitable fall of Assad and after, but we have to be very careful," she said.
"Our goal is to hasten the end of the bloodshed and the Assad regime."
In Syria itself, activists say 11 people have been killed in fighting in the capital, Damascus, while government forces continue to shell areas of city of Aleppo.
ABC/Reuters
Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, turkey, syrian-arab-republic, united-states