Syria, Turkey and the water tension

Turkey's deputy prime minister Maseout Yelmaz said replying to a question on what has been stated that Syria is not pleased about the Euphrates reservoir project which is being carried by Turkey saying: " we do not want to be in a conflict with Syria and we do appreciate the role played by Damascus in expelling members of the Kurdistani workers party, but the Euphrates reservoir is very important for the future of economic development in Turkey."

The Turkish deputy Premier added in an interview with the London- based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily issued on Monday as saying: " we have completed works in almost 50% of the infrastructure and we at the meantime working in the final stages and we will extend the invitation to Syria to accept the inevitability of this project and to join negotiations on a rationale use of waters. We are ready to deal fairly and generously, but the division of waters will not be equal as the Euphrates like any other Turkish river should be basically used for serving the interests of the Turkish people."

As for the Turkish- israeli alliance Yelmaz said " we do not have any alliance with israel, despite the fact that our co-operation with it is excellent.

This co-operation is not directed against any of the neighboring state and we had expressed our desire to develop a similar co-operation with other forces in the region of the wish so."