Turkey backs plan to strip Syria of its chemical weapons

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said Monday that his country supports any move that would completely strip Syria of its stockpile of chemical weapons.

However, he stressed that the international community should not act as if nothing serious is happening in Syria, even if Damascus had not used chemical weapons against its people.

Last Sunday, Turkey’s foreign ministry warned that the U.S.- Russia agreement designed to eliminate the chemical weapons in Syria, though a positive step, could be exploited by the Syrian government.

Earlier last Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov reached an agreement on the framework of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014 and imposing UN penalties if Damascus fails to comply.