Paris attacks: Malcolm Turnbull may offer peacekeepers as Syria solution emerges
Antalya: Signs of a breakthrough in Syria have emerged as world leaders, including Malcolm Turnbull, converging on the G20 summit say the Paris attacks increase the urgency to end the Syrian civil war and wipe out Islamic State.
The attacks, which have left 129 dead and 300 injured, 99 of whom are critical, have overtaken the agenda of the annual economic summit.
French President Francois Hollande, who declared the attacks an act of war and vowed a ruthless response, cancelled his trip to Turkey and sent Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who said it was now all the more necessary for the world to unite on how to deal with Syria and the terrorism it was spawning.
The signs of a breakthrough came on the eve of the G20 in Turkey when foreign ministers, including US secretary of state John Kerry and Russia's Sergei Lavrov, agreed on a tenuous plan for a cease fire in Syria and a transition towards a new government.
Mr Turnbull did not rule out Australian troops helping with peacekeeping should the plan succeed but cautioned it would be better if such troops were from the region as the would be more acceptable to the local population.
But there remains vehement disagreement between the US and Russia over the inclusion of Bashar al Assad in any future government.
Under the agreement, reached during a meeting in Vienna, from January 1, there will be United Nations supervised talks between the Assad regime and the main opposition.
These negotiations have six months to establish a "credible, inclusive and non-sectarian" transitional government. This government would draft a constitution with a view to holding a UN-supervised election within18 months.
In the interim, there would be a cease-fire, but apart from agreeing that Islamic State and al Qaida would not be eligible for the truce, the foreign ministers could not agree on which other warring factions within Syria would be classified as terrorists and exempted from the truce.
Russia and Iran back the Assad regime while the US is supporting the opposition. Jordan was tasked with leading a process to try and sort this out.
Barack Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice said the US would not accept any plan in which Assad remained in power.
"We do not believe so. Our strong view is that Assad has lost all legitimacy; that the fact that he has been directly responsible for the deaths of so many of his own people means that a transition ultimately will have to result in a legitimate government coming to power in the context of a transition. And it's very hard to envision how that could be accomplished with Assad still in power," she said.
'They are utterly Godless'
Mr Turnbull arrived in Turkey overnight Saturday after staying up all night in Berlin charing a meeting of the national security council of cabinet. He also phoned the only known Australian casualty, Emma Grace Parkinson, 19, who was wounded, shot in the hip.
"I did my best to cheer her up, she's a brave girl," he said, adding Australia's ambassador Stephen Brady was by her side.
Mr Turnbull said while a political solution was ultimately needed, Islamic State still needed to be defeated militarily as well because it used its military exploits as a recruitment tool.
In Antalya, Mr Turnbull met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and both men agreed Islamic State terrorists were nt only murderers but they disgraced Islam.
"They murder in the name of God but they are utterly Godless," Mr Turnbull said.
"This is a global problem and this is why, here at the G20, as the Turkish President and I were discussing, this issue of a collective response, of cooperation, of mutual support with a common purpose of combating and defeating terrorism of this kind has to be undertaken and it will be one of the major items on the agenda of this G20," he said.
Mr Erdogan has been demanding financial assistance from the west to help Turkey cope with the inundation of refugees. Australia has made a contribution and President Erdogan thanked him for it.
Mr Turnbull also met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and overnight Sunday he was scheduled to meet Mr Fabius and convey to him directly Australia's sympathies. He also had talks scheduled with Singapore's Prime Minister.
Paris attacks: Malcolm Turnbull may offer peacekeepers as Syria solution emerges
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