Russia on Friday accused the West of being an "accomplice" to the violence in Syria and said the country's opposition bore full responsibility for ending the ongoing violence.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Syrian President Bashar Assad's promise to stage a new constitutional referendum meant that it was now up to the armed resistance movement to take the next step.

The international community cannot afford to watch the "massacre" taking place in Syria without acting, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday during a visit to Washington.

Davutoglu is urging an international conference to resolve violence that erupted when demonstrators began demanding last spring Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from office.

Thirteen Kurdish rebels and one Turkish soldiers were killed Thursday in clashes in southeastern Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported, quoting local officials.

One soldier was killed and six wounded overnight when rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) opened fire on an army unit near Cukurca, close to the Iraqi border, Hakkari provincial governor Muammar Turker told Anatolia.

Turkey plans an international conference "as soon as possible" with regional players and world powers to solve the Syrian crisis, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"We are determined to establish a broad-based forum to promote international understanding with all countries concerned" with the developments in Syria, Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised interview.

Syria and Turkey are negotiating the conditions for the release of 49 detained Turkish intelligence officers, a radio station close to the government in Damascus said on Tuesday.

Sham FM said the officers had been detained while operating undercover, although there has been no word from Ankara on any such arrests.

Turkey will launch a "new initiative" with like-minded countries after the rejection of a U.N. resolution aimed at ending months-long bloodshed in neighboring Syria, its prime minister said on Tuesday.

"We will start a new initiative with those countries who stand by the Syrian people, not the regime," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in parliament, without elaborating.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul on Monday expressed his country's disappointment over the veto by China and Russia of a U.N. resolution on the Syrian crisis, saying that the cold war era was over.

"I'd like to say that we are upset about the vote at the United Nations," Gul told a televised news conference with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Myung-Bak.

Iraq has resumed oil exports via an undamaged pipeline to Turkey after they were cut by an explosion in the country's northern neighbor, officials said on Monday.

About a quarter of Iraqi oil exports are routed by pipeline to Turkey.

Turkey on Sunday criticized the Lebanese government, saying it has not voiced “a single word” to condemn the Syrian regime’s deadly crackdown on dissent.

“Has Lebanon voiced a single word to express its solidarity with our Muslim brothers who are being slaughtered? No, only Turkey has raised its voice,” Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

Turkey's deputy prime minister Bulent Arinc criticized Iran on Sunday for the country's silence over Syria's violent crackdown on protests.

"I am addressing the Islamic Republic of Islam: I do not know if you are worthy of being called Islamic," Arinc said, according to the Anatolia news agency.