Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington a day after discussing Syria with President Barack Obama, Erdogan said a no-fly zone could be discussed at a planned international conference on Syria backed by Washington and Moscow.

Turkey, a U.S. NATO ally, has been one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fiercest critics, throwing its weight behind the uprising against him, allowing the rebels to organize on its soil and sheltering 400,000 refugees.

But Erdogan has grown frustrated by a lack of international consensus on how to respond to the violence. Car bombs, which tore through a Turkish border town last weekend in the deadliest spillover of violence yet, have added to the sense of urgency.

“With respect to a no-fly zone … it is not a decision that could be taken between the United States and Turkey. It is something that would have to come through the U.N. Security Council,” Erdogan said.

“We are in the process of putting together a conference in Geneva … If that process decides on such a zone, as Turkey, we would also do whatever is necessary,” he said.

During his visit to Washington this week, Erdogan had been expected to push Obama, at least in private, for more assertive action on Syria.

Obama – who has been reluctant to arm Syrian rebels or become enmeshed militarily in the conflict – made no mention of deeper engagement during a joint news conference with Erdogan on Thursday, where the leaders sought to project a united front.

Western leaders have been cautious about the prospects of the planned talks in Geneva achieving any breakthrough, and Russia’s desire that Iran should attend could complicate matters because of potential opposition from the West.

Iran is a U.S. foe and the main regional ally of Assad’s government, which has also received support from Russia. Tehran’s desire to participate in a June 2012 meeting on Syria hosted by the United Nations in Geneva was a bone of contention between Washington and Moscow.

The main Syrian opposition, expected to decide its stance next week on the planned conference, has previously demanded Assad’s exit before any talks, something Erdogan reinforced.

“President Obama talked yesterday about a process without Assad … Having a transition with Assad in place cannot be a solution and the opposition wouldn’t accept it in any case,” Erdogan said.

SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY

Last year’s Geneva talks brought together the foreign ministers of the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members – Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain – along with Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar, the Arab League and EU.

The new meeting will aim to include the same global powers, but this time would also have representatives of the Syrian government and opposition.

“A second Geneva process with Russia and China included has our support,” Erdogan said.

He said he planned to travel to Moscow and to Gulf states to discuss the Syrian crisis after his visit to Washington.

Turkey has been among the strongest opponents of Assad but its enthusiasm for action against Syria has waned recently, partly in frustration at the fractured Syrian opposition and the growing brutality by both sides.

Erdogan has said Turkey, which has been testing blood samples from Syrian casualties for chemical weapons use, had shared its evidence with the United States, Britain and others and said Assad’s forces had also fired several hundred missiles.

“According to NATO they have used 283 missiles, and according to other information they are using the chemical sarin,” Erdogan said on Friday.

“These are issues that should be discussed in the U.N. Security Council and also perhaps in the U.N. General Assembly.”

(Reporting by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Eric Beech and Jackie Frank)

Trade was high on the agenda in a meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader is worried a deal could hurt his nation’s commerce with Europe and the United States.

Erdogan wrote to Obama earlier this year raising concern about the impact of such a deal on Turkey, most of whose trade is with Europe, and urged Washington to work in parallel on a similar deal with Ankara, Turkish officials said.

“As the United States pursues a new trade and investment partnership with the EU, I want to make sure that we also keep deepening our economic ties with Turkey,” Obama told a joint news conference with Erdogan at the White House.

He stopped short of saying any sort of free trade agreement was under discussion with Turkey, but said Washington and Ankara had created a “new high-level committee” aimed at increasing mutual trade and investment.

Washington and Brussels are expected to begin talks on the proposed trade pact in July and hope to finish in one to two years. If successful, the final agreement would cover half the world’s economic output and about a third of global trade.

Turkey has a customs agreement with the European Union under which a third country signing a trade deal with the EU gets automatic access to Turkish markets, but Turkey does not get the same reciprocal benefit for its exports.

“We’re already suffering because every free trade agreement the EU signs with third countries … we are asked to give the exact same kind of facilities. Then we’re in an uphill battle,” said a Turkish government official.

“That’s why we’re appealing both to the United States and to the European Union: if you’re going to create a trans-Atlantic economic space, then Turkey should definitely be part of it.”

Several options were under discussion, the official said, including a separate bilateral agreement with the United States or giving Turkey a seat at the table in the EU negotiations, although one diplomat said that looked unlikely.

“I understand the Turkish concerns. We have a customs union with Turkey where our economies are considerably integrated. An agreement like this will have consequences for Turkey,” an EU diplomat said.

“I know that Turkey wants to discuss with the American side how to move forward on their bilateral relationship and I think that’s only normal,” the diplomat said.

Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, said the new Turkish-U.S. committee would assess the impact of Washington’s discussions with the EU on its trade relationship with Turkey but did not comment on whether a separate deal with Ankara might be explored.

Erdogan said trade with the United States had more than doubled to $20 billion from $8 billion when he first took office a decade ago but said it still needed to be boosted further.

“There’s huge potential in many areas,” a source close to the Turkish government said.

“The U.S. doesn’t have quotas for many sectors and products that even the EU, with which we have a customs union, applies.”

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Paul Simao)

Trade was high on the agenda in a meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader is worried a deal could hurt his nation’s commerce with Europe and the United States.

Erdogan wrote to Obama earlier this year raising concern about the impact of such a deal on Turkey, most of whose trade is with Europe, and urged Washington to work in parallel on a similar deal with Ankara, Turkish officials said.

“As the United States pursues a new trade and investment partnership with the EU, I want to make sure that we also keep deepening our economic ties with Turkey,” Obama told a joint news conference with Erdogan at the White House.

He stopped short of saying any sort of free trade agreement was under discussion with Turkey, but said Washington and Ankara had created a “new high-level committee” aimed at increasing mutual trade and investment.

Washington and Brussels are expected to begin talks on the proposed trade pact in July and hope to finish in one to two years. If successful, the final agreement would cover half the world’s economic output and about a third of global trade.

Turkey has a customs agreement with the European Union under which a third country signing a trade deal with the EU gets automatic access to Turkish markets, but Turkey does not get the same reciprocal benefit for its exports.

“We’re already suffering because every free trade agreement the EU signs with third countries … we are asked to give the exact same kind of facilities. Then we’re in an uphill battle,” said a Turkish government official.

“That’s why we’re appealing both to the United States and to the European Union: if you’re going to create a trans-Atlantic economic space, then Turkey should definitely be part of it.”

Several options were under discussion, the official said, including a separate bilateral agreement with the United States or giving Turkey a seat at the table in the EU negotiations, although one diplomat said that looked unlikely.

“I understand the Turkish concerns. We have a customs union with Turkey where our economies are considerably integrated. An agreement like this will have consequences for Turkey,” an EU diplomat said.

“I know that Turkey wants to discuss with the American side how to move forward on their bilateral relationship and I think that’s only normal,” the diplomat said.

Carol Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, said the new Turkish-U.S. committee would assess the impact of Washington’s discussions with the EU on its trade relationship with Turkey but did not comment on whether a separate deal with Ankara might be explored.

Erdogan said trade with the United States had more than doubled to $20 billion from $8 billion when he first took office a decade ago but said it still needed to be boosted further.

“There’s huge potential in many areas,” a source close to the Turkish government said.

“The U.S. doesn’t have quotas for many sectors and products that even the EU, with which we have a customs union, applies.”

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Paul Simao)

Taking a cautious line at a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Obama voiced hope that the United States and Russia would succeed in arranging an international peace conference on Syria, despite signs of growing obstacles.

Erdogan had been expected to push Obama, at least in private, for more assertive action on Syria during a visit to Washington this week, days after car bombs tore through a Turkish border town in the deadliest spillover of violence yet.

Obama – who has been reluctant to arm Syrian rebels or become enmeshed militarily in the conflict – made no mention of deeper engagement in Syria during an appearance at the White House, where the leaders sought to project a united front.

“What we have to do is apply steady international pressure,” Obama said.

Both leaders stressed the need to bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table after more than two years of fighting that has killed more than 80,000 people and risks destabilizing the volatile Middle East.

But Russia’s insistence on Thursday that Iran, a U.S. foe and Assad supporter, take part in any international talks on Syria could further complicate efforts to organize the meeting.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tehran must have a role in the conference, but that Western states wanted to limit the participants and possibly predetermine the outcome of the talks.

Conflicting comments from Russia and the West over Iran’s role in the possible meeting have added to disagreements which already threaten to derail the conference proposed by Moscow and Washington last week.

Erdogan, whose country would be a key player in any conference, suggested that the involvement of Russia and China – both permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – would add impetus, but he made no mention of Iran being invited to attend.

Turkey, a U.S. NATO ally, has been one of Assad’s fiercest critics, throwing its weight behind the uprising, allowing the rebels to organize on its soil and sheltering 400,000 refugees.

Earlier on Thursday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul criticized the world’s response on Syria as limited to “rhetoric,” saying his country had received little help with the refugee influx. Gul’s role is largely a ceremonial one.

Turkey has been among the strongest opponents of Assad but its enthusiasm for action against Syria has waned recently, partly in frustration at the fractured Syrian opposition and growing brutality.

Fighters of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria executed 11 men they accused of taking part in massacres by Assad’s forces in a video published on Thursday.

A man whose face was covered in a black balaclava shot each man in the back of the head as they kneeled, blindfolded and lined up in a row in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS

With intelligence assessments that Assad has likely used chemical weapons on a small scale against the opposition, Obama stuck to his position that more specific information is needed to confirm this before deciding how to respond.

Obama, who had said chemical weapons use would cross a “red line,” made clear, however, that Washington was keeping all options on the table, though he did not provide specifics.

“There are a whole range of options that the United States is already engaged in,” he told reporters. “And I preserve the options of taking additional steps, both diplomatic and military, because those chemical weapons inside of Syria also threaten our security over the long term as well as our allies and friends and neighbors.”

But pushing back against the notion that the United States might act alone, Obama said he would present any further chemical weapons evidence to the international community.

“This is also an international problem,” Obama said. “It’s not going to be something that the United States does by itself, and I don’t think anybody in the region including the prime minister would think that U.S. unilateral actions in and of themselves would bring about a better outcome inside of Syria.”

With American public opinion running strongly against new military engagement overseas, the White House wants to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Iraq war when false intelligence was used to justify the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Erdogan said Turkey, which has been testing blood samples from Syrian casualties, had shared its chemical weapons evidence with the United States, Britain and others and would also take it to the U.N. Security Council at the “proper time.”

Underscoring the lack of a Western consensus on how to push Assad from power, Obama declined to set a time frame for the Syrian leader’s departure, saying only “the sooner the better.”

Erdogan said Turkey was in full consensus with the United States on the need to end the bloodshed in Syria and for a political transition to a government without Assad, but declined to be drawn out on whether Washington should do more.

Erdogan faces growing domestic concern about Turkey’s role in Syria and its cost. He said Ankara would maintain its “open-door policy” toward Syrian refugees. He estimated that Ankara had already spent $1.5 billion on the problem.

Touching on another issue of strong U.S. interest, Erdogan said he would go ahead with a planned visit to the Gaza Strip, probably in June, and would also go to the West Bank, despite pressure from Washington to delay the trip.

The Obama administration is concerned Erdogan’s visit to the Palestinian enclave might endanger U.S. efforts to revive Turkey’s ties with Israel and to advance Middle East peace talks. Erdogan he hoped his visit would promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Eric Walsh)

The bombings in Reyhanli, which killed 50 people on Saturday, and activists’ reports of a massacre of Sunni Muslims in a Syrian coastal town have incensed Tayyip Erdogan, already critical of the slow international response to the conflict.

The risk of Syria’s chaos spreading will top the agenda in Erdogan’s talks with Obama on Thursday, but the wide-ranging meeting with one of Washington’s Middle Eastern allies is also expected to cover Turkey’s nascent reconciliation with Israel and its deepening energy ties with Iraqi Kurdistan.

Turkey has thrown its weight heavily behind the two-year uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, allowing the rebels to organize on its soil and sheltering 400,000 refugees.

But Ankara resents a sense that Western allies are cheering it along while offering little in the way of concrete support.

“Of course Syria will be our main topic … We will draw a roadmap. Turkey has been damaged more than any other country,” Erdogan told reporters before boarding his plane to Washington.

Saturday’s bombings in crowded shopping streets, which Ankara blamed on “an old Marxist terrorist organization” with direct links to Assad’s government, brought home the reality of Syria’s chaos spreading to Turkish soil.

Washington sees Turkey, which shares a 900 km border with Syria and has NATO’s second-largest army, as key to planning for a post-Assad Syria and is expected to push for Erdogan’s support in arranging a proposed peace conference also backed by Moscow.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he expected the conference to be held in early June, although Western leaders including Obama have dampened expectations that a civil war, estimated by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights to have killed over 94,000 people, can be doused soon.

Assad’s government has said it wants specifics before it decides whether to take part, while Syria’s main opposition coalition has said it will meet in Istanbul on May 23 to assess whether it will join.

“Our objective is to ensure Assad cedes power to a transitional authority. We are hoping that what (Russian Foreign Minister Sergei) Lavrov and Kerry announced will be within those parameters,” a senior Turkish government official said.

Turkey long advocated a no-fly zone to create safe havens within Syria but the idea failed to gain much traction among Western allies. It has since said it favors greater support to the opposition over military intervention, though some Turkish officials said a no-fly zone could come back under discussion.

Erdogan and Obama are also expected to confer on any evidence of chemical weapons use by Assad’s forces, which the U.S. president has warned would be a “red line”, as well as possible deeper U.S. engagement in the conflict.

Turkey has been testing blood samples from casualties, which Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who will also be in Washington, said last week indicated chemical weapons use.

Washington has said in recent weeks it is rethinking its long-standing opposition to arming the rebels, although there has been no word on when a decision might be made.

ENERGY DEALS

Turkey and the United States have a long history of military and strategic cooperation but ties have often been prickly.

Erdogan and Obama will discuss a host of other regional issues, from Turkey’s thawing relations with Israel to its energy deals with Iraq, as well as the division of Cyprus, split between a Turkish north and Greek Cypriot south since 1974.

“The visit is an opportunity for the leaders to coordinate on a broad and substantive agenda, including Syria, Iraq, Middle East peace, Iran and countering global terrorism, among others,” a White House official said.

Turkey is not the deferential U.S. ally it once was, its long-standing alignment with Washington has eroded under the decade-old leadership of Erdogan, who has carved out an increasingly assertive and independent role on the world stage.

Its caustic rhetoric on Israel, gold sales to Iran – meant to be under the choke of U.S. sanctions – and deepening energy ties with Iraqi Kurdistan, to the chagrin of the central government in Baghdad, have all been sticking points.

Before leaving for Washington, Erdogan – who will be accompanied by Energy Minister Taner Yildiz – said Turkey had agreed with Kurdistan’s regional government and U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil on terms for oil exploration.

Kurdistan is pushing ahead with plans to build its own oil export pipeline to Turkey, despite objections from the United States, which fears it could lead to the break-up of Iraq.

An energy official in Ankara said Turkey could open a neutral escrow account to help share the revenues.

“If the U.S. administration gives the green light, Turkey could take a step forward in this,” the official said.

(Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun and Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, Matt Spetalnick and Arshad Mohammed in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Alison Williams)

“The (view) of both sides is that the negotiations are very
fruitful and that in the nearest future both sides are
interested in signing this agreement,” Kolobov said on the
sidelines of a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
conference in Istanbul.

A previous $15 billion programme was frozen in early 2011
after the Kiev government refused to raise heavily subsidised
household gas and heating prices.

The gas price remains one of the main stumbling blocks in
the way of a new loan deal as President Viktor Yanukovich’s
government continues to resist calls for unpopular austerity
measures, analysts say.

“Right now both sides, we and the IMF, are looking for a
special model in this case and I think in the nearest future we
will find this model which will be suitable for both sides,”
Kolobov said when asked about IMF pressure for such measures.

Favourable conditions on global capital markets – propped up
by liquidity injections from major central banks – are
strengthening Ukraine’s hand, allowing it to issue Eurobonds at
relatively low rates.

(Editing by Carolyn Cohn Editing by Jeremy Gaunt.)

Kazakhstan has one of the lowest public debt ratios in
emerging markets and its last sovereign Eurobond matured in
2007. Zhamishev said a new bond would be aimed at creating a
benchmark for corporate borrowers.

“In 2013 we would like to go back to the borrowing market
and I think that we will probably borrow up to $1 billion, it
will be in U.S. dollars,” he told the annual meeting of the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

“We are going to the external markets not for money but for
credit, for loans, for benchmarks and in order to make ourselves
present in this market.”

He declined to comment on what kind of yield Kazakhstan
considered appropriate. JPMorgan’s global emerging dollar bond
index shows Kazakh risk trading around 245 basis points above
Treasuries.

That is based on the yields of state-run firms such as oil
producer Kazmunaigaz, which are eligible for the sovereign
index.

Kazmunaigaz last month raised $3 billion via a dual-tranche
bond, paying 5.75 percent over 30 years and 4.40 percent over
10. The order book was a healthy $14 billion.

Zhamishev said the government had started looking for banks
to lead the sovereign deal. “We sent (request-for-proposals) to
banks and legal consultants,” he said.

Kazakhstan, rated BBB+/Baa2 by ratings agencies, is a
leading oil producer as well as a major exporter of industrial
metals, uranium and grain. Its economy grew by 4.5 percent year
on year in the first quarter.

The White House disclosed U.S. intelligence on Thursday that Syria had likely used chemical weapons, a move President Barack Obama had said could trigger unspecified consequences, widely interpreted to include possible U.S. military action.

Syrian neighbors Jordan and Turkey, their support key in any such intervention, have long been vocal critics of Bashar al-Assad. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an erstwhile ally of the Syrian President, was among the first to call openly for his overthrow while allowing armed opponents to use Turkish soil.

But their rhetoric has been tempered by the changing circumstances of a war that has dragged on beyond their expectations and grown increasingly sectarian, as well as by the suspicion they will be left bearing the consequences of any action orchestrated by Western powers thousands of miles away.

For Turkey’s leaders, facing elections next year, talk of chemical weapons is an uncomfortable reminder of the wave of anti-U.S. sentiment which followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, justified by intelligence on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons that turned out to be erroneous.

Turkey, which shares a 900-km border with Syria, has reacted cautiously to the U.S. disclosure while Jordan, fearful of the growing influence of radical Islamists in the Syrian rebel ranks, has voiced its preference for a political solution.

“The international community, and especially the peoples of the Middle East, have lost confidence in any report which argues that there are weapons of mass destruction or chemical weapons,” said one source close to the Turkish government.

“Right now, no-one wants to believe them. And if Assad uses chemical weapons some day … I still think Turkey’s primary reaction would be asking for more support to the opposition rather than an intervention.”

Turkey’s rhetoric on Syria, at least in public, has toned down markedly over the past six months, even as shelling and gunfire spilled over the border and the influx of refugees to camps on its territory swelled to a quarter of a million.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s push for a foreign-protected “safe zone” inside Syria gained little traction among allies and appears to have quietly slipped from the agenda. Even Erdogan, whose speeches were regularly laced with bellicose anti-Assad rhetoric, mentions the conflict less frequently.

But many analysts believe both the pro-U.S. monarchy in Jordan and Erdogan’s government in Ankara would toe the line should Washington seek their cooperation in military action.

Turkey’s relations with Washington have at times been prickly – notably in 2003 when it failed to allow the deployment of U.S. forces to Turkey to open a northern front in the Iraq war – but strategic cooperation has generally remained strong.

Turkish support and bases proved vital, for example, to U.S. forces in Afghanistan, while Turkey hosts a U.S.-operated NATO radar system to protect against any regional threat from Iran.

“Given the texture of the current government’s relations with the U.S. and given the history of its discourse on Syria, I think it would be not impossible but rather difficult for Mr Erdogan not to oblige U.S. demands,” said Faruk Logoglu, former Turkish ambassador to Washington and vice chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party.

RELUCTANT PARTNERS

Although Obama has warned Syria that using chemical weapons against its own people would cross a “red line”, he has also made clear he is in no rush to intervene on the basis of evidence he said was still preliminary.

Syria denies using chemical weapons in the two-year-old conflict in which more than 70,000 people have been killed.

Mindful of the lessons of the start of the Iraq war, aides have insisted Obama will need all the facts before deciding what steps to take. But acknowledgment of the intelligence assessment appears to have moved the United States closer – at least rhetorically – to some sort of action, military or otherwise.

Turkey and Jordan would be key to any such move, but they may prove reluctant.

From the outset, Turkey has felt slighted.

Before the crisis, Erdogan cultivated a friendship with Assad, personal ties which he tried to use after the start of the uprising in March 2011 to persuade the Syrian leader to embrace reform and open dialogue. He was rebuffed.

When his strategy changed, he began calling for Assad’s removal and allowing the Syrian opposition to organize on Turkish soil. Ankara felt it gained praise from Washington and its allies but little in the way of concrete support.

“Turkey feels lonely in many senses,” the Turkish source said, saying that a military intervention now would leave Turkey and Syria’s other neighbors reeling from the consequences.

“There is always the risk of creating more destruction and creating a failed state in Syria … This thing is happening next door. The flames are reaching us, starting to burn us, where they can’t reach the United States, Qatar, or the UK.”

Jordan’s King Abdullah said last year Assad should step down, but the kingdom is increasingly concerned by the growing strength in Syrian rebel ranks of Islamist fighters who view the monarchy with just as much hostility as they do Assad.

Further fuelling those fears is the presence of fighters from the Nusra Front, which has declared its allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, among rebels who have taken territory across Syria’s southern province of Deraa, only 120 km (75 miles) from the Jordanian capital Amman.

Officials fear Syria has become a magnet for Islamist fighters who could one day turn their guns on Jordan – as Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi did during the sectarian conflict in neighboring Iraq. Zarqawi was widely believed to have been behind simultaneous attacks on Jordanian tourist hotels which killed dozens of people in November 2005.

SENSE OF URGENCY

Such fears could push the U.S. and its allies to act.

“The fact that the opposition is divided cuts both ways. It makes the logistics and even the politics of an intervention more difficult,” said Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM).

“But at the same time it reinforces the urgency of an intervention: the more the international community does not intervene in Syria, the more likely it is that the radical elements will gain the upper hand in a post-Assad Syria.”

Turkish officials and diplomats have expressed concern about the role Saudi Arabia may be playing in providing weapons which are going to the hands of radical Islamist elements among the Syrian rebel ranks.

U.S. intelligence agencies believes Assad’s forces may have used the nerve agent sarin on a small scale against rebel fighters. The fear is that an increasingly desperate Assad may use such weapons more widely the longer the conflict drags on.

An attack like that on the Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja – where an estimated 5,000 people died in a poison gas attack ordered by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein 25 years ago, the most notorious use of chemical weapons in the Middle East in recent history – could sway public opinion in the region.

“A major chemical attack would outrage the Arab and Muslim street … It would be difficult just to watch, then everyone would intervene,” said retired Jordanian air force general Mamoun Abu Nowar.

The role Turkey or Jordan would play in any military action will depend on Washington’s strategy, but logistical support for limited missile strikes or possible assistance in enforcing the sort of no-fly zone long advocated by Turkey appear more likely than sending in ground troops.

Turkey is home to NATO’s second-largest army and to the Incirlik Air base, which provided logistical support for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is already hosting hundreds of U.S. soldiers operating part of a NATO Patriot missile system to defend against possible Syrian attack.

Washington meanwhile announced last week it was sending an army headquarters unit – which could theoretically command combat troops – to Jordan, bolstering efforts started last year to plan for contingencies there as Syria’s conflict deepens.

“A surgical strike to get the stocks of chemical weapons … or establishing air superiority through a number of strikes against Syrian air defenses, this is the type of scenario being contemplated in Turkey,” said EDAM’s Ulgen.

“Anything beyond that is much more difficult to see.”

(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi and Khaled Oweis in Amman; Writing by Nick Tattersall)

After six hours of meetings in a palace on the shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, the declaration by the main opposition Syrian National Coalition was welcomed by allies including the United States and Britain.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington would double its non-lethal aid to opposition forces in Syria to $250 million and that foreign backers had agreed to channel all future assistance through the rebels’ Supreme Military Council.

Speaking after the “Friends of Syria” meeting of the opposition and their international backers, Kerry stopped short of a U.S. pledge to supply weapons that the anti-Assad insurgents have sought.

But he said the rebels’ foreign backers were committed to continuing support to them and “there would have to be further announcements about the kind of support that that might be in the days ahead” if Syrian government forces failed to pursue a peaceful solution.

The pledge is far less than what is sought by U.S. allies Britain and France and some U.S. lawmakers.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the European Union would in the coming weeks discuss easing an arms embargo which has prevented weapons supplies to the Syrian rebels. His German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, said Berlin was skeptical about arming the rebels but also said the EU must discuss it.

The opposition declaration vowed any weapons it attains would not fall into the wrong hands, a key concern of its Western backers, and said its goal was a “democratic, pluralistic” Syria.

Syria’s al-Nusra Front, one of the most effective rebel forces battling Assad’s troops, formally pledged allegiance to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri this month. The United States has designated the Nusra Front a terrorist organization.

“We realize that there are radical and extremist elements in Syria which follow an agenda of their own. We firmly reject and condemn all forms of terrorism and any extremist ideology or mentality, as do the Syrian people,” it said.

The coalition pledged it would not allow acts of revenge against any group in Syria, saying that members of Assad’s administration “with blood on their hands” would be held accountable through fair trials.

‘CLEAREST LANGUAGE YET’

The Syrian conflict began more than two years ago as peaceful demonstrations against Assad’s rule but gradually became militarized under a heavy crackdown by his forces.

A subsequent civil war pitted the Sunni majority against members of Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, in a conflict which has killed more than 70,000 people.

“Today, it’s safe to say that we are really at a critical moment,” Kerry said. “The stakes in Syria couldn’t be more clear: Chemical weapons, the slaughter of people by ballistic missiles and other weapons of huge destruction.”

The Syrian opposition’s Western backers have been alarmed at the rise of radical Islamist groups like the al-Nusra Front in the insurgent ranks, who consider Alawites and Shi’ites as infidels.

“We will not tolerate or allow acts of revenge and retribution against any group in Syria,” the opposition coalition said in its declaration.

Britain’s Hague said the declaration was “the clearest language” yet from the opposition in renouncing radical groups and committing to a democratic solution.

The crisis in Syria has divided world powers, with the United States, Europe, Gulf states and Turkey backing the opposition, while Russia, Iran and others have backed Assad.

Opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib urged Russia to play a positive role “to stop the bloodshed” in an increasingly sectarian war that risks engulfing the region.

“We strongly call on Iran not to get involved more than it has and to pull out its officers,” Alkhatib told a joint news conference with Kerry and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

“(Iran) also has to ask Hezbollah to pull out its fighters from Syria in order to avoid dragging the region to a bigger battle,” he said.

The rebels accuse the Lebanese Shi’ite movement Hezbollah of sending fighters to support Assad’s forces. Several members of Hezbollah have been killed in clashes in villages near the Syria-Lebanon border.

The Syrian opposition had hoped the Istanbul meeting would give teeth to a tacit agreement that arming rebel groups is the best way to end Assad’s rule.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Paul Simao)

Speaking at a meeting of the Friends of Syria in Istanbul,
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany was
sceptical about supplying weapons to the rebels but said the
subject should be discussed by the European Union.

One senior opposition figure said arms were already being
sent from some countries but acknowledging this at the meeting
would provide cover for countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar to
openly help the rebels.

“The world must know if they don’t agree on our right to
receive weapons this will be the last meeting the opposition
attend. We will not attend any meetings after this,” he told
Reuters.

Washington plans to provide about $100 million in new
non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition that could include for
the first time battlefield support equipment such as body armour
and night-vision goggles, a U.S. official said on Friday.

Secretary of State John Kerry was expected to announce the
new aid package, which would mark a recalibration of U.S. policy
toward Syrian rebel groups at Saturday’s meeting. Fresh U.S.
humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees is also likely.

The new assistance would stop short of supplying weapons to
rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
It is also far less than what is sought by Syrian opposition
leaders, U.S. allies Britain and France and some U.S. lawmakers.

The senior opposition official called on those reluctant to
supply weapons to say so openly, which Westerwelle did on the
sidelines of the meeting.

“We expect from the opposition that they clearly distance
themselves in Syria from terrorist and extremist forces,” he
told reporters.

“We are sceptical as the German government when it comes to
delivering weapons because we are concerned that weapons could
fall into the wrong, namely extremist, hands, but it is a matter
that must now be discussed in the European Union.”

NEGOTIATION RULED OUT

Another senior opposition source rejected the idea of any
foreign interference in the future of Syria.

“The international community cannot ask us for anything.
What country we have after Assad is for us the Syrians to decide
it is not for the international community,” he said.

“After two years of this and the regime now using Scud,
chemical weapons and getting help from Iran and Russia they come
and tell us they want guarantees from us? How could they do
this?” he added.

The 11-nation “core group” of the Friends of Syria,
including the United States, European and Arab nations, has been
deadlocked over how to remove Assad, whose security forces
killed and arrested thousands of protesters who took to the
streets to demand democratic reforms in March 2011.

Syria’s opposition said earlier it hoped the Istanbul
meeting would give teeth to a tacit agreement that arming rebel
groups is the best way to end Assad’s rule.

One Syrian rebel leader said on Saturday only force could
end the country’s two-year conflict and ruled out the
possibility of any negotiation with Assad’s administration other
than over its exit.

“There is no solution with this regime through negotiation.
This (conflict) will not be settled other than by force,”
Brigadier Selim Idris, head of a military command, told
reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Istanbul.

“Maybe in its final stages, when the regime feels it has lost
everything, it might want to negotiate for its exit.”

More than 70,000 have been killed in the revolt and
subsequent civil war. But a military stalemate has set in and
much of Syria is left in ruins because of a divided and
ineffective opposition, a lack of action by foreign allies and
Assad’s ability to rely on support from Russia and Iran.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom; Reporting by Nick
Tattersall; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Stephen Powell)