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                Obama, Erdogan Pledge to Keep Pressure on Assad

   by VOA News

   U.S. President Barack Obama and visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep
   Tayyip Erdogan say they will keep pressure on Syria's president to
   leave power as they try to resolve the country's civil war.
   Speaking at a joint news conference at the White House Thursday, Obama
   said he and Erdogan agreed that President Bashar al-Assad should hand
   over power to a transitional body.
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   Erdogan said Ankara and Washington also agree on continuing to support
   the Syrian opposition, preventing Syria from becoming a terrorist
   haven, avoiding the use of chemical weapons in the country and securing
   the rights of its minorities.
   The two leaders emphasized their overlapping goals in Syria but did not
   address their differences in how best to achieve them.
   Turkey has called for toppling Assad with more aggressive steps such as
   a no-fly zone and directly arming Syrian rebels. The Obama
   administration has been reluctant to take those actions, limiting
   itself to providing humanitarian aid and non-lethal technical support
   to the opposition.
   Obama said the United States will keep helping Turkey to shoulder the
   burden of hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees from the
   civil war. He also said Turkey will play an important role in a Syria
   peace conference that Western powers and Russia hope to hold next month
   with Syrian government and opposition delegates.
   The U.S. president said he reserves the right to take diplomatic and
   military steps in case of conclusive evidence that chemical weapons
   have been used in the conflict. But, he said there is "no magic
   formula" for dealing with Syria's violence.
   Erdogan said Turkey wants to see the international community show more
   sensitivity toward the situation in Syria. Some Turkish officials have
   expressed frustration with the U.S. approach to Syria and the lack of
   action by the U.N. Security Council.
   But, when asked by a reporter about how the conflict will be affected
   if the United States does not become more involved, Erdogan said he
   prefers to see the glass half-full rather than half-empty.
   A Turkish minister accompanying Erdogan in Washington told VOA that
   Ankara believes stopping the Assad government from indiscriminate
   killing of its own people is a priority.
   Turkish Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis said the United States and
   Turkey can achieve that goal only by persuading all members of the U.N.
   Security Council to intervene.
   "I think President Obama and Prime Minister Erdogan will be able to
   discuss new challenges and opportunities to convince the international
   community in terms of taking the necessary measures to stop the bloody
   Assad regime," Bagis said.
   Erdogan also was holding meetings on Thursday with U.S. Vice President
   Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry. President Obama also was
   due to honor the Turkish prime minister by inviting him to a private
   dinner later in the day.
   The U.S.-based Pew Research Center released a survey of Turkish public
   opinion showing that 68 percent of respondents disagree with their
   government's support for arming Syrian rebels. It also showed that 62
   percent of respondents were concerned that Syria's violence could
   spread to their country.
   Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the Syrian border last
   week, killing 51 people in an attack that Turkey blamed on Syria.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-erdogan-to-pressure-assad-regime/1662367.html