RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called yesterday for international observers along Turkey’s porous border with Syria to stem the flow of terrorists and arms.

His comments at a press conference with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida in Tokyo echoed Russian UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin’s address to the Security Council the day before.

“There are ‘holes’ on the Turkish borders through which gunmen and weapons get into Syria,” Mr Lavrov said, while in the other directions there was “a flow of different contraband.”