Turkey welcomes strikes on Syria as 'appropriate'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erodgan, who has clashed with the Trump administration over its handling of the Syrian civil war, on Saturday praised the allied mission ordered by President Trump to take out key chemical weapons sites in neighboring Syria.

The United States, Britain and France carried out a wave of pre-dawn strikes against the Assad regime Saturday in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians on April 7.

According to presidential sources, Erdoğan reiterated that Turkey strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons, while Macron gave information about the operation jointly conducted by the U.S., France and the United Kingdom.

"The innocent Syrian people should have been defended long ago".

Erdoğan also held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Theresa May on Saturday.

Both the regime of Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Russian Federation, its ally, have denied all responsibility for the April 7 attack.

The spokesman stressed that in order to prevent further deaths in Syria a political solution was urgently needed.

They agreed to "stay in close touch on both bilateral and regional issues".

"We welcome this operation which has eased humanity's conscience in the face of the attack in Douma, largely suspected to have been carried out by the regime", the Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Ankara said chemical weapons attacks that indiscriminately target civilians "constitute crimes against humanity" and should not go unpunished.

"The conscience of the worldwide community is in no doubt about that".