ISTANBUL – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Saturday for reform to the UN Security Council to allow progress to resolve the Syria crisis which has been held up by veto powers Russia and China. “If we must wait for one or two permanent members, then Syria's fate is really in great danger,” Erdogan told a conference in Istanbul. Moscow and Beijing, as two of the five permanent members of the Security Council, have so far blocked three draft resolutions backed by Western and Arab countries, accusing them of interference in Syrian affairs. “It's time to change the structure of international institutions, starting with the UN Security Council,” Erdogan said, calling for “wider, fairer and more effective representation.” “By failing to implement an effective policy toward events in Syria, the Security Council is rapidly losing its legitimacy in the eyes of the oppressed elsewhere in the world,” he charged. He said reform of the Council should take into account the growing strength of countries including Turkey, Brazil, India and Indonesia, adding: “The West is no longer the only center of the world.” Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had separate talks with Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi on the Syria crisis and the latest developments on the border between the two countries where five Turks were killed by Syrian shelling on October 3, Anatolia news agency said. With rebel fighters in control of large swathes of Syria's border area, there have been a series of incidents of cross-border fire this month that have sparked retaliatory shelling by NATO member Turkey and heightened UN concern about the potential for escalation. Davutoglu and Arabi also discussed the Syrian opposition which Ankara supports and the interception Wednesday by Turkish fighter aircraft of a Syrian passenger jet which Erdogan said carried an illegal consignment of munitions and Russian military equipment. On Saturday Turkey's leaders were also to meet international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. During his visit to Istanbul Westerwelle had talks with the leader of the main Syrian opposition alliance, the Syrian National Council, Abdel Basset Sayda. Separately, Erdogan also met Tunisia's Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem and the leader of one of Libya's largest political parties, the National Forces Alliance. – Agencies
