Turkey to take more active role on Syria in next 6 months

Turkey will take a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the next six months to prevent the war-torn country being divided along ethnic lines, Turkish Prime Binali Yildirim said on Saturday.

Yildirim told a group of reporters in Istanbul that while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could have a role in the interim leadership, he must play no part in its future.

Syria's more than five-year conflict has taken on an ethnic dimension, with Kurdish groups carving out their own regions, and periodically battling groups from Syria's Arab majority, whose priority is to overthrow Assad.

Turkey fears the strengthening of Kurdish militant groups in Syria will further embolden its own Kurdish insurgency, which flared anew following the collapse of a ceasefire between militants and the state last year.

Turkey is one of the main supporters of rebels fighting tooverthrow Assad, and hosts more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees.

"Could Syria carry Assad in the long-term? Certainly not,"Yildirim said. "The United States knows and Russia knows that Assaddoes not appear to be someone who can bring (the people) together."

"We may sit and talk (with him) for the transition. A transitionmay be facilitated. But we believe that there should be no (Kurdishrebels), Daesh or Assad in Syria's future," he said, using anArabic acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Yildirim also denied news reports that Russia was seeking to useTurkey's southern air base of Incirlik for its operations in Syria.The base is currently being used by the U.S.-led coalition againstISIS.

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"They have no request for Incirlik," Yildirim said. "I don'tthink they have a need for Incirlik. Because they already have twobases in Syria."

Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruisemissiles at targets near the Syrian city ofAleppo on Friday, a further sign ofMoscow's broadening military effort in Syria days after it beganto fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran.

Russian airpower had helped al-Assad make steadyadvances against rebels seeking to oust him since Moscow'sintervention a year ago, but a recent insurgent advance inAleppo has checked that momentum.