ISTANBUL
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday said that the United Nations Security Council had to take new measures to end the tragedy in Syria.
Davutoglu's remarks came after UN observers suspended their activities in Syria on Saturday.
Speaking to reporters following the end of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative (NPDI) ministerial meeting in Istanbul, Davutoglu said that Turkey was concerned with the increasing number of Syrian refugees escaping to Turkey.
On the NPDI meeting, Davutoglu said that nuclear weapons were a threat to whole humanity.
We, as 10 countries, do not want to see a nuclear race in the Middle East, Davutoglu noted.
Reminded by a journalist about the international community's silence over Israel's nuclear capability, Davutoglu said that it was their wish to see the region denuclearized.
There has to be an objective criteria. The criteria applied to Iran must also be applied to Israel, Davutoglu stressed.
In a press conference held after the NPDI ministerial meeting, Dutch Foreign Minister Uriel Rosenthal said that they were concerned with the presence of high amounts of chemical weapons in Syria.
Australian Foreign Minister Robert John Carr said that nuclear weapons were a serious threat to the whole world.
Meanwhile, in a final statement issued, the foreign ministers of the NPDI made a call on countries with nuclear weapons to minimize the number of nuclear weapons and eventually eradicate their nuclear arsenal.
