UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY YILDIRIM; REVISED HEADLINE, DECK; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Sibel Ugurlu
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey’s prime minister warned on Friday that the Assad regime's repeated, indiscriminate attacks in Idlib, Syria will create more refugees and lead to more pain.
“The [Assad regime’s] intensified attacks in Idlib will trigger a new wave of migration and cause new suffering,” Binali Yildirim told reporters in the capital Ankara.
Turkey, Russia, and Iran — the three guarantor countries in ongoing Syrian peace talks — had taken the initiative to prevent such dire events, he added.
Yildirim also condemned the way Assad regime attacks, in their drive to capture more territory, make no distinction between civilians and other elements.
“How can you not discriminate between civilians and terror groups in a place where millions of people have been living?” he asked.
“This only serves to hinder the peace talks.”
Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in early 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.
