Turkey steps up pressure on Syria by threatening to cut power supply

Turkey has halted joint oil exploration with Syria and threatened to cut energy supplies to its neighbour over the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on demonstrators.

Reuters/Umit Bektas

The move come in the wake of weekend attacks on Turkish diplomatic missions in three Syrian cities.

Thousands of pro-regime protestors armed with knives and batons attacked the missions in Damascus as well as the cities of Aleppo and Latakia on Saturday over Turkey's support for an Arab League decision to suspend Syria

"We are currently exporting electricity (to Syria). If the situation continues like this, we may be in a position to revise all these decisions," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.

Turkey, once a close ally of Damascus, has been exporting electricity to Syria since 2006.

Yildiz also said that Turkey's Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has stopped exploration with the Syrian national oil company in six wells, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier Tuesday that Ankara had abandoned hope that Syria would respond to international demands to halt violence and initiate democratic reforms.

Meanwhile, more than 70 people died on Tuesday in one of the bloodiest days of Syria's eight-month uprising as President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists reacted angrily to growing isolation.

Around 100 of his supporters stormed the Jordanian embassy in Damascus overnight - the latest regional mission to be targeted since the Arab League voted on Saturday to impose sanctions - after Jordan's King Abdullah II became the first Arab leader to publicly call for Assad to quit.