Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu today rubbished suggestions that talks should be held with President Bashar al-Assad, saying negotiating with the Syrian leader was no different to shaking hands with Nazi tyrant Adolf Hitler.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a weekend interview that Washington would have to talk with Assad eventually if peace was to be forged, in comments that drew a strong rebuke from Ankara which said there was nothing to negotiate with Assad.
"If you sit down and shake hands with Assad after all those massacres and despite the chemical weapons that you (the United States) declared a red line, then your hand will be never be erased from history," Davutoglu told his ruling AKP party's lawmakers in the parliament.
"It makes no difference to shake hands with Hitler or Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Saddam, or Assad," he said.
"We welcome that denial," he said.
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