LONDON (AA) - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Tuesday "If some countries including Turkey guarantees, then the Syrian National Coalition stated that they will participate in the Geneva Conference".
Foreign Ministers of the Core Group of the Friends of Syria came together in London on Tuesday to discuss Syria crisis and the preperations for the Geneva 2 Conference which is expected to take place in Switzerland next month. Following the "London 11" titled conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu held a press conference in British capital.
Stating that the meeting was held in two phases, Davutoglu said first of all teams of 11 foreign ministers got together and formed a communique they worked on yesterday and stated, "We came to an agreement on the communique. Later on today, we discussed the next steps in the framework of this communique and met with President of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Ahmad Jarba. Both main points of the communique and what should be the next steps were covered. It was such a beneficial meeting. You will see it on the communique that there are points which Turkey was paying attention at."
Davutoglu noted that it was important for them as the process was not open-ended and added, "There should not have been any doubts occuring over the representation of the Syrian opposition. These all took place on the communique." "Whatever would cause to neglect the humanitarian dimension, would not satisfy us. It is very important for all those 11 countries coming together and that is why the Syrian National Coalition stated their satisfaction of 11 countries gathering within the scope of this frame. And as these 11 countries go together, what we emphasized them with is the importance of the maintanence of the Syrian oppositions' unity."
"They especially mentioned Turkey and said that it was important for Turkey to be there during the process. The London meeting was a successfull meeting with the results that we wanted to receive."
- Three-stage action plan
Turkish minister said they offered working on a three-stage action plan after this and stated, "First one will be on the way to Geneva Conference. Especially, co-working with the Syrian opposition. Second one will be actions being held during the Geneva talks. And lastly, following the Geneva talks, a transitional government with full power should be set up and all the political representation will be transferred to the transitional government after the formation of it. So Assad and all bloody-minded elements being outside of the system."
Upon the question about persuading the Syrian National Coalition to participate at the Geneva peace talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu said, "The coalition has some concerns. We can say that following the allaying of their concerns, some of the coalition's reserves were lifted however this is not the problem of only 11 countries. All those sides attending the Geneva Conference and the UN have to show a common manner over the issue. Us, 11 countries will continue communicating with the Syrian opposition in one side and keep our efforts in order to allay their concerns. We will also continue our actions before UN. This is not a concluded process, this is a stage which reflects the common positions of 11 countries. By that means, the Syrian National Coalition made a support statement. In this framework, they stated if there were some countries inluding Turkey, giving a guarantee then they would participate at the Geneva 2 Conference."
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