Turkey’s foreign minister said Syria’s worsening war now posed a danger to all countries because President Bashar al-Assad’s government had been allowed to continue its “crimes” while radicals from around the world flooded in to fight him. Ahmet Davutoglu told Reuters a robust international strategy including “real intelligence cooperation” and withdrawal of all foreign fighters was needed to end the conflict and help millions of Syrians devastated by violence.
The crisis was “a threat to all”, he said in an interview, pointing to what he called the totalitarian nature of the Assad government. He added that Damascus had in effect colluded with the militant rebel groups to fight moderate opposition factions. “Syria is becoming a risk for all European countries as well, because of the presence of these terrorist groups based on the power vacuum and because of the totalitarian and autocratic nature of the regime,” he said. “This is a threat to all of us.”