Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned that backing off from a military strike against Syria “signals a green light to the Syrian regime to commit more massacres.”
He pointed out that “Turkey has no doubt the chemical attack was carried out by the regime,” adding that, “This conclusion is the result of an in-depth intelligence analysis that Turkey has accumulated.”
During a television interview Davutoglu said the chemical weapons attack in Ghouta on 21 August “was carried out by specialized military units designed to carry chemical weapons. Within Syria only the regime possesses these means.” Davutoglu also asserted that earlier chemical attacks “took place in the provinces of Homs and Aleppo.”
Davutoglu stressed that “the Syrian regime must be punished” for using chemical weapons against “innocent civilians who support the opposition.”