Turkey has banned all Syrian aircraft from its airspace as it takes an increasingly firm stance against president Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey, a member of Nato, has increasingly taken on a leadership role in the international coalition ranked against Assad.
Turkish confrontation with Syria increased in the past two weeks because of cross-border shelling and escalated on 10 October, when Ankara forced down a Syrian airliner en route from Moscow, accusing it of carrying Russian munitions for the military.
Russia has said that there were no weapons on the plane and that it was carrying a legal shipment of radar equipment.
Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday that its airspace had been closed to Syrian planes. Syria banned Turkish planes from flying over its territory on Saturday.
"We made a new decision yesterday and informed Syria. We closed our airspace to civilian Syrian flights, as well as military flights," Mr Davutoglu said.
The United Nations peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, was in Tehran yesterday for talks with Iranian officials.
Mr Brahimi, who took over the mediator job after Kofi Annan quit in frustration, met foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi.Shi'ite Iran is the main ally in the region of Assad.
Copyright 2012 Johnston Press PlcAll Rights Reserved
