Erdogan: Anti-Daesh fight in Syria ‘like theatre play’

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has likened the ongoing fight in Syria against Daesh to a "theatrical performance".

"The power struggle in Syria fought under the pretext of combatting Daesh has turned into a tragic play and a theatre, where nobody can tell the difference between the good and the evil," he said late Saturday.

Erdogan made the remarks at a ceremony titled "Seb-i Arus Istanbul 2015" at Istanbul's Sinan Erdem Sports Hall to mark the 742nd anniversary of the death of Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Rumi.

"Everyone is acting and striving to steal a role but the reality is that it is the people -- babies, children, women and the elderly -- that are being killed, along with the destruction of houses, schools, places of worship and historical monuments," he said.

The president noted that there are various motives harbored by those throwing bombs in Syria, but “the bombs, they leave bloodshed and loss of life wherever they explode.”

The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution endorsing a peace plan set out during three rounds of international talks to foster an end to the Syria civil war.

The unanimously adopted resolution asks UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to bring together the Syrian government and the opposition "to engage in formal negotiations on a political transition process on an urgent basis, with a target of early January 2016 for the initiation of talks".

It also stipulates that Ban report back to the Security Council on the implementation of the resolution, "including on progress of the UN-facilitated political process", within 60 days.

The Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, has left more than 250,000 victims dead and made the country the world's single-largest source of refugees and displaced people, according to UN figures.