TEMPO.CO, Beirut - Russia said on Thursday it suspected Turkey was preparing a military incursion into Syria, as a Syrian army source said Aleppo would soon be encircled by government forces with Russian air support.
Turkey in turn accused Moscow of trying to divert attention from its own "crimes" in Syria, and said Aleppo was threatened with a "siege of starvation". It said Turkey had the right to take any measures to protect its security.
In another sign of the spreading international ramifications of the five-year-old Syrian war, Saudi Arabia said it was ready to participate in ground operations against Islamic State in Syria if the U.S.-led alliance decided to launch them.
The United Nations on Wednesday suspended the first peace talks in two years, halting an effort that seemed doomed from the start as the war raged unabated. Washington said on Thursday however it was hopeful they would resume by the end of the month, and Russia said it expected that no later than Feb. 25.
Donors convened in London to tackle the refugee crisis created by the conflict. British Prime Minister David Cameron said they raised $11 billion for Syrian humanitarian needs over the next four years.
Turkey said at the conference up to 70,000 refugees from Aleppo were moving towards the border to escape air strikes.
BORDER MARCH
Footage online showed hundreds of people, mostly women, children and the elderly, marching towards Turkey's Onucpinar border gate, carrying carpets, blankets and food on their backs.
Four months of Russian air strikes have tipped the momentum of the war Assad's way. With Moscow's help and allies including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iranian fighters, the Syrian army is regaining areas on key fronts in the west.
Russia's defence ministry said it had registered "a growing number of signs of hidden preparation of the Turkish Armed Forces for active actions on the territory of Syria".
Any Turkish incursion would risk direct confrontation between Russia and a NATO member.
"The Russians are trying to hide their crimes in Syria," said a senior official in Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's office.
"They are simply diverting attention from their attacks on civilians as a country already invading Syria. Turkey has all the rights to take any measures to protect its own security."
In London, Davutoglu said the "humanitarian logistic corridor" between Turkey and Aleppo was "under the invasion of these foreign fighters and regime forces (with) the support of Russian warplanes".
"What they want to do in Aleppo today is exactly what they did in Madaya before, a siege of starvation," he added.
Davutoglu pledged that whatever the cost Turkey's door would remain open to all Syrians. It has already taken in more than 2.5 million.
Relations between Russia and Turkey have deteriorated badly since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November.
State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on Turkish military operations on the Syrian border, saying only: "They are working to secure that stretch of border, but I'm not going to comment on specific military activities of another nation inside their borders."
REUTERS
