Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down “immediately” to open the way for a political settlement, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday. “The Assad regime should absolutely leave power in Syria. It is not the first time the Assad regime used chemical weapons,” the minister said at an event on Islamophobia organized in Ankara, the Hurriyet Daily News reported. “Leaving the chemical weapons aside, he has killed nearly 1 million people using other weapons through aerial bombing, barrel bombs and conventional weapons,” Cavusoglu was quoted as saying. He made the statement answering a question about the alleged recent chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta. The attack on civilians in Douma was staged by members of the White Helmets organization, First Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Department Lieutenant General Viktor Poznikhir, said on Wednesday.