ANKARA/ISTANBUL: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he believed relations with Washington would improve under President-elect Donald Trump and that the two NATO allies would reach an easier consensus on regional issues.
Ties between the US and Turkey — which has the second largest army in the NATO alliance and is key to the US-led fight against Daesh in Syria and Iraq — have deteriorated sharply since a failed military coup in July.
Erdogan and the government blame the abortive putsch on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, and want him extradited. Gulen denies involvement in the coup.
Ankara has also been angered by US support for a Kurdish militia group fighting Daesh in Syria. Turkey sees the group as an extension of the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in southeastern Turkey and has been behind a spate of recent bombings.
“I believe we will accelerate dialogue when Mr. Trump takes office,” Erdogan told a conference of Turkish ambassadors. “I believe we will reach a consensus with Mr. Trump, particularly on regional issues.”
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the envoys he believed Trump would not make what he called the same mistakes as the outgoing US administration. Washington should extradite Gulen and end cooperation with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
The US has long been cast by some nationalist and radical elements as the guiding hand behind plots to undermine Turkey. Conspiracy theories have reached fever pitch in recent weeks, and in some cases been fueled by elected officials.
The hard-line Yeni Akit newspaper said last week that a New Year’s Day shooting which killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub, claimed by Daesh, was a “joint production” by the CIA, Israel’s Mossad spy agency, and what the Turkish government calls “FETO,” the Gulenist Terror Organization.
“Daesh, the PKK and FETO are terror groups with strings linked to the same center. Along with many secret services, the most active user is the CIA,” Samil Tayyar, a ruling AK Party lawmaker, said on Twitter after the attack.
Such comments prompted a rebuke last Thursday from US State Department spokesman John Kirby: “Incendiary and false accusations about the US in Turkish media are offensive and could endanger our citizens. Must stop,” he wrote on Twitter.
Any honeymoon with the new Trump administration is likely to be short-lived.
US officials have made clear the issue of Gulen’s extradition is a matter for the courts, not a question of political will, and that such a process could take years.
Trump’s policy on the Kurdish YPG is unclear. He has indicated, though, that his priority in the multi-sided Syrian conflict will be fighting Daesh — not forcing President Bashar Assad to leave power as Turkey has long desired.
Erdogan sees better ties with US under Trump
Erdogan sees better ties with US under Trump
Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.
Lebanon hopes for neighborly relations in first message to new Syria government
- Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war
- Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders
DUBAI: Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib passed the message to his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani, in a phone call, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said on X.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major part propping up Syria’s ousted President Bashar Assad through years of war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel – a redeployment which weakened Syrian government lines.
Under Assad, Hezbollah used Syria to bring in weapons and other military equipment from Iran, through Iraq and Syria and into Lebanon. But on Dec. 6, anti-Assad fighters seized the border with Iraq and cut off that route, and two days later, Islamist militants captured the capital Damascus.
Syria’s new Islamist de-facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa is seeking to establish relations with Arab and Western leaders after toppling Assad.
Iraqi intelligence chief discusses border security with new Syrian administration
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi delegation met with Syria’s new rulers in Damascus on Thursday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, the latest diplomatic outreach more than two weeks after the fall of Bashar Assad’s rule.
The delegation, led by Iraqi intelligence chief Hamid Al-Shatri, “met with the new Syrian administration,” government spokesman Bassem Al-Awadi told state media, adding that the parties discussed “the developments in the Syrian arena, and security and stability needs on the two countries’ shared border.”
Israeli minister’s Al-Aqsa mosque visit sparks condemnation
- Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem
JERUSALEM: Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visited Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound on Thursday, triggering angry reactions from the Palestinian Authority and Jordan accusing the far-right politician of a deliberate provocation.
Ben Gvir has repeatedly defied the Israeli government’s longstanding ban on Jewish prayer at the site in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which is revered by both Muslims and Jews and has been a focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I went up to the site of our temple this morning to pray for the peace of our soldiers, the swift return of all hostages and a total victory, God willing,” Ben Gvir said in a message on social media platform X, referring to the Gaza war and the dozens of Israeli captives held in the Palestinian territory.
He also posted a photo of himself on the holy site, with members of the Israeli security forces and the famed golden Dome of the Rock in the background.
The Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem’s Old City is Islam’s third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian national identity.
Known to Jews as the Temple Mount, it is also Judaism’s holiest place, revered as the site of the second temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
Under the status quo maintained by Israel, which has occupied east Jerusalem and its Old City since 1967, Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to visit the compound during specified hours, but they are not permitted to pray there or display religious symbols.
Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital, while Israeli leaders have insisted that the entire city is their “undivided” capital.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “condemns” Ben Gvir’s latest visit, calling his prayer at the site a “provocation to millions of Palestinians and Muslims.”
Jordan, which administers the mosque compound, similarly condemned what its foreign ministry called Ben Gvir’s “provocative and unacceptable” actions.
The ministry’s statement decried a “violation of the historical and legal status quo.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a brief statement that “the status quo on the Temple Mount has not changed.”
UN force sounds alarm over Israeli ‘destruction’ in south Lebanon
- Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days
BEIRUT: The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Lebanon expressed concern on Thursday at the “continuing” damage done by Israeli forces in the country’s south despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.
The warring sides have since traded accusations of violating the truce.
Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days.
UNIFIL said in a statement on Thursday that “there is concern at continuing destruction by the IDF (army) in residential areas, agricultural land and road networks in south Lebanon.”
The statement added that “this is in violation of Resolution 1701,” which was adopted by the UN Security Council and ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006.
The UN force also reiterated its call for “the timely withdrawal” of Israeli troops from Lebanon, and “the full implementation of Resolution 1701.”
The resolution states that Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers should be the only forces in south Lebanon, where Hezbollah exerts control, and also calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanese territory.
“Any actions that risk the fragile cessation of hostilities must cease,” UNIFIL said.
On Monday the force had urged “accelerated progress” in the Israeli military’s withdrawal.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) reported on Thursday “extensive” operations by Israeli forces in the south.
It said residents of Qantara fled to a nearby village “following an incursion by Israeli enemy forces into their town.”
On Wednesday the NNA said Israeli aircraft struck the eastern Baalbek region, far from the border.
