Train-equip program not enough for Syria and Iraq: Turkish FM

A program to train and equip Syrian opposition fighters is not enough to save Syria and Iraq on its own, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu said June 4.

"We should save Syria and Iraq. It would be an over-optimistic approach if we depend merely on the train and equip program," the minister told news broadcaster A Haber.

The root of the instability, the Syrian government, should be eliminated, he said.

The Syrian opposition fighters that are trained and equipped should enter Syria through a secure area and be protected from airstrikes from the government. 

Turkish and U.S. officials are still in discussions about the issue, the minister said.

"These people will return [to Syria]. A decision should be given as soon as possible," he added. 

Turkey has launched a training program for national guards in Iraq's Mosul province as part of the struggle against Islamic State and the Levant (ISIL) militants, he said.

The training is taking place around 25 kilometers from Mosul, which is under ISIL control, the minister said.

In 2014, Turkey began participating in the training of Kurdish Peshmerga forces in northern Iraq, while also
providing some non-lethal military assistance for the Iraqi army.

The minister also dismissed media reports that suggested that some 1,000 Syrian rebels refused to join the train-equip program and quit because the U.S. condition was to only fight against ISIL, not against Syrian forces. 

Meanwhile, remarks by a U.N. spokesman about arms shipments to warring Syrian forces were not directed at Turkey, the minister said. 

"It is not true that the remarks [by U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric] were directed at Turkey as stories published in one or two...