Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has made Turkey a party to Syria's bloodshed by interfering in Damascus's internal affairs and by giving logistical support to the rebels, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a Turkish newspaper.
Assad also accused the Turkish leader of being "two-faced" by pursuing a sectarian agenda in the region and trying to persuade Damascus to introduce political reforms while ignoring the killings and democratic shortfalls in Gulf Arab states.
In the first part published on Tuesday, Assad said he wished his forces had not shot down a Turkish jet last month, repeating Syria's official position that it did not know the plane's identity when it was brought down.
Speaking to another Turkish newspaper, Vatan, on his way back from Egypt on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu dismissed Assad's comments as lies and said he did not believe the Syrian leader had any such regrets.
Meanwhile, Turkey's military says bodies of two pilots whose jet was shot down by Syria have been found in the sea bed. State-run TRT television says a U.S. deep-sea exploration vessel, E/V Nautilus, found the bodies in eastern Mediterranean on Wednesday.
Syrian forces shot down the RF-4 plane on June 22. Turkey says it was hit in international airspace while Syria insists it was flying inside Syrian airspace.
The downing of the plane has worsened already tense Turkish-Syrian relations.
Earlier in the day, Russian Kommersant Daily reported that the West is trying to convince Russia to offer Syrian President Bashar
Assad political asylum.
"Western countries, and above all the
United States, are making active attempts to persuade Moscow to take in the
Syrian leader and provide him with political asylum," diplomatic sources told
Kommersant daily.
For his part,
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Ryabkov denied statements that Moscow was discussing Assad’s future with Washington. The source added that Russia has never entertained such plans.
Commenting on Russia's stances, British FM William
Hague said Russia must
understand situation in Syria
as untenable; “no point anyone siding with Assad,” he added.
In this context, Head of the Observation Mission in Syria, Gen. Robert Mudd said the
search for a solution to the
crisis continues, especially after decisions reached in the Geneva
meeting.
On the field, shelling and clashes
continued on Wednesday across several Syrian towns, mainly in Damascus outskirts, Idlib
and Daraa, injuring 7 civilians, the Syrian
observatory for Human Rights reported.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI