ANKARA — Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has accused Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad of resorting to a new strategy of “ethnic cleansing” to create a safe zone for his Alawite sect, in an interview published Wednesday. “What concerned us about the Banias incident is that (Assad) has switched to a new strategy to reinstate influence by subjecting a certain area to ethnic cleansing,” Davutoglu told the Hurriyet newspaper. He was referring to the Mediterranean city of Banias where rights monitors say dozens of people were killed in attacks in a Sunni neighborhood condemned by the international community. “This is a so-called Plan B strategy based on sectarian clashes and opening a space or corridor for a certain sect,” he said, suggesting Assad was trying to create an all-Alawite zone stretching from the embattled city of Homs to Lebanon. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he was appalled by the photographs of children massacred by the regime and called on the UN Security Council to “urgently convene” over the Banias killings. Davutoglu said Banias was occupying a critical location in the corridor extending to Lebanon. “This is a dangerous game. This is an ethnic cleansing,” he said. “The goal is to intimidate the residents and to force them to leave. In fact, the majority of one million refugees who fled to Lebanon is Sunnis.” Meanwhile, UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi hailed a US-Russia accord to push both sides in the Syrian conflict to end the bloodshed, but cautioned that it was “only a first step.” The deal came after lengthy talks in Moscow between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. “This is the first hopeful news concerning that unhappy country in a very long time,” Brahimi said in a statement. “The statements made in Moscow constitute a very significant first step forward. It is nevertheless only a first step,” said Brahimi, who an aide said has been mulling resignation over the apparent absence of a political track to resolve a war that has killed more than 70,000 people. “There is every reason to expect” backing for the accord from the remaining UN Security Council permanent members” — Britain, China and France, the veteran Algerian diplomat added. “It is equally important that the entire region mobilizes in the support of the process.” Kerry and Lavrov announced the agreement at a Moscow news conference. “We agreed that Russia and the United States will encourage both the Syria government and opposition groups to find a political solution,” Lavrov said. He said both nations were ready to use all their resources to bring “the government and opposition to the negotiating table.” On the ground, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels shot down a regime fighter jet over the northern province of Aleppo “that was shelling areas near Minnigh military air base... and the pilot's fate remains unknown”. The observatory also reported that regime troops had stormed the rebel-held town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in southern Daraa province. The town has been a strategic boon to the rebels, who have used it as a base to block the highway between Damascus and Daraa. The observatory denied reports that the entire town had been retaken by regime troops though, saying fierce fighting was ongoing. — Agencies
