FM Terzi: Assad must stop provoking Turkey

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ''must cease these provocations, be they intentional or not,'' Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi said on Thursday. The minister's comments follow on yesterday's incident, in which stray mortar fire from the civil war in Syria hit a Turkish border town, killing five people. Turkey has shelled Syrian government forces positions in retaliation. ''The flow of refugees and the repetition of these military episodes on the border exert powerful tensions on Turkish public opinion and therefore on the government as well. This must stop,'' Terzi told reporters on the sidelines of the presentation of Innovitalia, a new ministry science-related digital platform. ''The Syrian president is conscious that acts of violence must not stray beyond national borders, and that violence within those borders must end as well,'' the minister went on. Asked whether Assad could be encouraged to leave with the aid of other Arab countries, Terzi answered that ''such a solution is not imminent. Assad has made it clear he is willing to continue with his repressive action. He wants to solve the problem militarily, by drowning the claims of his people in blood.'' The only way forward now, said the minister, is to ''work on the humanitarian emergency first,'' and then ''continue down the diplomatic route, which ought to be the first agenda item at the next Security Council meeting.''