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Obama urges UN to impose sanctions against Syria

21 September 2011 18:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. President Barack Obama urged on Wednesday the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against Syria over its crackdown on opposition protesters, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

"Now is the time for the United Nations Security Council to sanction the Syrian regime, and to stand with the Syrian people," Obama told the UN General Assembly’s session.

The Security Council is currently considering two draft resolutions on Syria, including a Russian one that calls for talks to resolve the Syrian conflict.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara was considering imposing sanctions against Damascus.

"I have cut all contacts with the Syrian administration," Turkish state-run Anatolia news agency quoted Erdogan as saying. "We never wanted things to arrive at this point, but unfortunately, the Syrian administration has forced us to take such a decision."

The United States and the EU have already imposed unilateral sanctions on Syria.

The Syrian government has used force to crush opposition protests, which followed a wave of uprisings in other Arab countries. The UN says over 2,000 people have died since the start of the protests in March.