Turkey slams Kerry over 'talk to Assad' remarks
Turkey Monday slammed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for suggesting negotiations would have to be opened with President Bashar Assad to end the conflict in Syria, AFP reported.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state-run Anatolia news agency that all Syria's current problems, on the fourth anniversary of the start of the conflict in March 2011, were caused by the Assad regime.
"What is there to be negotiated with Assad?" Cavusoglu was quoted as saying at the end of his visit to Cambodia.
"You are going to have what negotiations with a regime that has killed over 200,000 people and has used chemical weapons?" he asked.
"Up until now, what result has been reached [with the regime] through negotiations?" he added.
He said all parties needed to work for a political "transformation" in Syria.