ANKARA: Ankara and Moscow continued their coordination on Syria ahead of the seventh round of peace talks in Astana on Monday.
On Oct. 28, according to presidential sources quoted in Turkish media, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed the latest developments in Syria by phone.
They reportedly underlined the significance of closely coordinating in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, where the Turkish military recently began building observation posts as part of a “de-escalation” deal brokered by Ankara, Moscow and Tehran last month.
Experts say they expect Idlib to dominate the agenda of the upcoming Astana meeting, which is due to last for two days.
“The Turkish Army is working very closely with Russia to secure and monitor the de-escalation zone in Idlib,” Emre Ersen, a Syria analyst at Marmara University in Istanbul, told Arab News.
“Russia expects Turkey to play an influential role there in keeping rebel groups away from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.”
Turkey’s alleged plan to launch an operation against Kurdish forces in the neighboring region of Afrin is also likely to be discussed.
“It’s not clear whether Moscow is ready to give Ankara a free hand over Afrin yet,” said Ersen.
“This is mainly because Russia has remarkably improved its relations with the Syrian Kurds in the last few years, in the belief that they’d play a crucial role in the reconstruction of post-Daesh Syria,” he added.
“Although Moscow perceives the YPG (People’s Protection Units) as under the influence of Washington, it still wants to maintain its leverage over the Syrian Kurds.”
Ersen said the draft constitution prepared by Russia a few months ago, which includes greater autonomy for Syrian Kurds, will continue to be the main point of disagreement between Ankara and Moscow.
The Astana talks have been led by Turkey, Russia and Iran. Representatives of the Assad regime, armed opposition groups, the UN, the US and Jordan are expected to attend the upcoming meeting.
Ersen said Moscow and Tehran know that they need active Turkish cooperation, at least in the short term, in order to keep Syrian rebel groups under control.
“So they might try to appease Ankara with a few minor concessions regarding Afrin,” he added.
“Considering the latest rapprochement between Turkey and Iran over the Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq, they might use this new momentum to reach an understanding about the Syrian Kurds.”
So far, Turkish troops have installed two observation posts in northern Syria, and the number is expected to reach 14.
Mehmet Seyfettin Erol, head of the Ankara-based think tank ANKASAM, said Turkish and Russian interests converge on the need to develop an efficient dialogue mechanism regarding current and potential developments in their neighborhood.
“The Astana peace process confirmed that both parties will cooperate to end the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and to preserve their territorial integrity,” Erol told Arab News.
“I don’t think there’s a divergence between Moscow and Ankara over the YPG and its political wing the PYD (Democratic Union Party),” he said.
“They just differ on one thing: Turkey doesn’t consider any terror group a counterpart in the negotiations, while Russia doesn’t want to leave the PYD/YPG to the US.”
But Erol said the Turkish-Russian partnership in Syria will be tested if Ankara launches a military offensive in Afrin and Manbij.
“During this seventh round of Astana talks, I expect the parties to underline that they won’t tolerate any terror corridor along Syria and Iraq, and they’ll call for a joint stance against separatist movements,” he said.
Russia will also give a green light to Turkey’s ongoing security and anti-terror operations in Idlib, Erol added.
Ankara, Moscow coordinate steps ahead of new round of Astana talks
Ankara, Moscow coordinate steps ahead of new round of Astana talks
Israel strikes Yemen’s Sana’a airport, ports and power stations
- Houthis said that multiple air raids targeted an airport, military air base and a power station in Yemen
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said it struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including Sana’a International Airport and three ports along the western coast.
Attacks hit Yemen’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations as well as military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib, Israel’s military added.
The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The Israeli attacks on the airport, Hodeidah and on one power station, were reported by Al Masirah TV, the main television news outlet run by the Houthis.
More than a year of Houthi attacks have disrupted international shipping routes, forcing firms to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys that have in turn stoked fears over global inflation.
Israel has instructed its diplomatic missions in Europe to try to get the Houthis designated as a terrorist organization.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Houthi attacks against Israel, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Wednesday.
On Saturday, Israel’s military failed to intercept a missile from Yemen that fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, injuring 14 people.
Syria authorities say torched 1 million captagon pills
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new authorities torched a large stockpile of drugs on Wednesday, two security officials told AFP, including one million pills of captagon, whose industrial-scale production flourished under ousted president Bashar Assad.
Captagon is a banned amphetamine-like stimulant that became Syria’s largest export during the country’s more than 13-year civil war, effectively turning it into a narco state under Assad.
“We found a large quantity of captagon, around one million pills,” said a balaclava-wearing member of the security forces, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Osama, and whose khaki uniform bore a “public security” patch.
An AFP journalist saw forces pour fuel over and set fire to a cache of cannabis, the painkiller tramadol, and around 50 bags of pink and yellow captagon pills in a security compound formerly belonging to Assad’s forces in the capital’s Kafr Sousa district.
Captagon has flooded the black market across the region in recent years, with oil-rich Saudi Arabia a major destination.
“The security forces of the new government discovered a drug warehouse as they were inspecting the security quarter,” said another member of the security forces, who identified himself as Hamza.
Authorities destroyed the stocks of alcohol, cannabis, captagon and hashish in order to “protect Syrian society” and “cut off smuggling routes used by Assad family businesses,” he added.
Syria’s new Islamist rulers have yet to spell out their policy on alcohol, which has long been widely available in the country.
Since an Islamist-led rebel alliance toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive, Syria’s new authorities have said massive quantities of captagon have been found in former government sites around the country, including security branches.
AFP journalists in Syria have seen fighters from Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) set fire to what they said were stashes of captagon found at facilities once operated by Assad’s forces.
Security force member Hamza confirmed Wednesday that “this is not the first initiative of its kind — the security services, in a number of locations, have found other warehouses... and drug manufacturing sites and destroyed them in the appropriate manner.”
Maher Assad, a military commander and the brother of Bashar Assad, is widely accused of being the power behind the lucrative captagon trade.
Experts believe Syria’s former leader used the threat of drug-fueled unrest to put pressure on Arab governments.
A Saudi delegation met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, a source close to the government told AFP, to discuss the “Syria situation and captagon.”
Jordan in recent years has also cracked down on the smuggling of weapons and drugs including captagon along its 375-kilometer (230-mile) border with Syria.
Jordan says 18,000 Syrians returned home since Assad’s fall
AMMAN: About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
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.”
