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Assad slams Turkish top officials as "puppets" to Western powers

Xinhua, August 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad toughened on Tuesday the rhetoric against Turkey, saying Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu are "mere puppets" to the West.

The president made the remarks during an interview with the Lebanese al-Manar TV, during which he commented on Turkish plans to create a "safe zone" in northern Syria.

"Erdogan and Davutoglu are mere puppets and they have dream of creating a buffer zone on the Syrian borders, but they cannot move in that direction unless their masters give them the go-ahead sign," Assad said.

Turkey has been recently floating the idea of creating a "safe zone" in northern Syria, calling it an Islamic State (IS)-free area.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara and Washington will start joint air operations to flush the IS militants from a rectangle of territory roughly 80 km long in northern Syria bordering Turkey. Endit