Published time: May 12, 2013 23:07
Despite harsh rhetoric, Turkey won’t take any action against the Syrian government of Bashar Assad without getting a go-ahead from Washington, Middle East expert, Jeremy Salt, told RT.
Turkish authorities have detained nine people in connection with
Saturday’s deadly car bombings in a town near the Syrian
border.
Two blasts killed 46 and injured over 100 as Turkey was quick to
blame Syrian intelligence for the attack, but the government in
Damascus denies all the accusations.
Middle Eastern history and politics professor at Bilkent
University in Turkey, Jeremy Salt, says it’s the Islamists among
the Syrian rebels, who look the only party to benefit from the
attacks.
RT: Why did the Turkish government label the Syrian
government as the “usual suspects” in the bombings — before the
investigation even started?
Jeremy Salt: The Turkish government claims it arrested
nine people and it claims to have evidence that they’re connected
with the Syrian intelligence service. We haven’t seen that evidence
yet. We’ll have to wait and see what it says. At this stage, it
seems to me quite inconceivable that Syria would do that because if
we look at what’s happening on the ground right now. The Syrian
army is rolling back the insurgency. The insurgents have taken huge
losses in the last few months, in particular, around Damascus, near
the Lebanese border, and even around Halab — Aleppo — and in the
North Syria. And along with this is the fact that the Americans are
changing pace and are going into negotiations with Russia to come
out with a solution. So it doesn’t make any sense that Syria would
do that right now.
RT: Just in the last few hours, Syria’s information
minister said that Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s responsible
This article originally appeared on : RT