Turkey says strikes on Syria should aim the removal of Assad’s regime

Any military operation against Syria should be thorough and aim to end the country’s vicious civil war, according to Ankara, which believes that this requires the removal of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

An intervention against Syria that is forceful and extensive enough to end the war will achieve greater legitimacy and better serve the region’s interests, a Turkish official argued this week. When asked how this could be achieved, the official said it requires the collapse of the regime.
The official also dismissed the suggestion that an operation against the Syrian regime could be used to force a political solution with the opposition as part of the planned Geneva II conference, saying on condition of anonymity: “Military operations have their own dynamic. Once you fire the first bullet, there is no way of knowing where the whole thing will go.”

Amid slim chances of a negotiated end to Syria’s civil war, the US is preparing to bypass the UN Security Council (UNSC) and strike the Syrian regime with a coalition of like-minded countries after what Turkey, the US and France say was a chemical attack by the Syrian military in Damascus on Aug. 21. The UNSC has been paralyzed since the start of the conflict more than two years ago, as Russia and China are blocking a resolution that could pave the way for an international attack on the regime.