Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday described the US-led bombing of Syrian sites as “appropriate,” expecting the US-Russian conflict to be solved peacefully.

“We spent the night sleepless and followed the operation,” Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul. “We find the operation appropriate.”

He said it would be wrong to expect the previous attacks by the Syrian regime to remain unanswered.

“It is not all about the chemicals, more people were slaughtered previously by conventional weapons,” he stressed, calling on world countries to put the future of all kinds of weapons on the table for discussions in detail.

“Instead of transferring a massive amount of resources to arms projects, let’s use this wealth for the benefit of humanity,” said the president.

He also noted that he spoke to British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier in the day over the operation against Syria and that he voiced hope for the conflict between Russia and the US to be settled in a peaceful way.

The US, Britain and France hit Syrian military facilities with a wave of joint airstrikes early Saturday in response to an alleged chemical attack blamed on the Syrian military, sparking an outcry from Syria, Russia and Iran.

Turkey has been working with Russia and Iran through the so-called Astana process to achieve peace in Syria, but it has rejected direct dialogue with Damascus until now.