Ankara: The presidents of Iran, Turkey and Russia vowed to work for a lasting ceasefire after over seven years of civil war in Syria, following a summit aimed at boosting both peace prospects and also their influence in the country.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Russia's Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating for "the achievement of a lasting ceasefire between the conflicting parties", a joint communique said.
The meeting in Ankara was the second such tripartite summit after the first hosted by Putin in November in the Black Sea city of Sochi, in a new symbol of an increasingly deep cooperation.
However there was no major breakthrough announced after the summit meeting, and comments by the trio indicated possible tensions in what analysts see as a potentially brittle alliance.
The three powers have backed peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, which they argue are a parallel process to UN-supported discussions in Geneva.
Erdogan insisted their meetings and the Astana talks were not an "alternative" to the Geneva process to find peace in Syria, at a post-summit press conference.
But the three presidents said that so far, "the Astana format had been the only effective international initiative that had helped reduce violence across Syria and had contributed to peace and stability".
Experts say that Ankara, Moscow and Tehran are looking to take advantage of the waning Western influence in Syria and reluctance to commit militarily.
Hours before the summit, US President Donald Trump said he wanted to "bring our troops back home" from Syria after indicating last week the US would withdraw from the country "very soon".
But Rouhani hit back, complaining that the "Americans say something different every day."
Unlike the West, the three countries have deployed significant military resources in Syria, with Tehran having a strong ground presence and Moscow ruling the skies.
Turkey meanwhile drove out Kurdish militia from Afrin city on March 18, two months after it launched an offensive in northern Syria supporting Syrian rebels.
Ankara has indicated Turkey could extend its operation to the Kurdish-held town of Manbij and further east, as well as the northern Syrian town of Tal Rifaat.
"We are ready to work together with our Iranian and Russian friends to make Tal Rifaat region liveable for our Syrian brothers and sisters," Erdogan said.
So far the three powers -- whose imperial predecessor states spent much of the last centuries at war -- have managed to keep a lid on their differences on Syria.
While Moscow and Tehran support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad politically and militarily, Turkey has repeatedly called for his removal and supported Syrian opposition fighters.
But experts say disputes between Moscow and Ankara could come to the fore when the regime turns its attention to Idlib province.
Idlib's civilian infrastructure is largely controlled by the extremist alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Turkey is keen to prevent a Russia-backed regime assault on the province home to around 2.5 million people. But Moscow wants Ankara to also exert influence over the militants in control of Idlib.
Tensions may also be emerging behind the scene between Russia and Iran, with Moscow much more concerned to press for reform under Assad than Tehran.
Meanwhile, according to the Iranian presidency, Rouhani said in the closed-door session that the Afrin area taken by Turkey and its allied forces should be handed over to the Syrian regime's army.
He argued that the Syrian army "is still the symbol of this country's national sovereignty". Turkey's reaction was not made public.
Erdogan also expressed alarm over the situation in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, which has come under heavy regime bombardment over the last weeks, creating a major humanitarian crisis.
Syrian state news agency SANA said evacuations from the former rebel bastion's main town of Douma of Jaish al-Islam fighters and family members were ongoing for a third day.
Erdogan said that the bloodshed in Ghouta had been "ruthless" but avoided any direct criticism of Russia and Putin as the backers of the Syrian regime.
More than 350,000 people have been killed since the war began following anti-government protests in 2011, while millions have been internally displaced or forced to flee.
Turkey, Russia and Iran urge ‘lasting cease-fire’ in Syria
Turkey, Russia and Iran urge ‘lasting cease-fire’ in Syria
- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iran's Hassan Rouhani and Russia's Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their commitment to cooperating for "the achievement of a lasting ceasefire between the conflicting parties"
- Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told the leaders of Turkey and Russia that the Syrian region of Afrin, captured by Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies, should be handed over to Syria's army
Relatives of Bashar Assad arrested as they tried to fly out of Lebanon
Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of Bashar Assad — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case. They were being detained by Lebanese General Security. Rifaat had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.
Rifaat Assad, the brother of Bashar Assad’s father Hafez Assad, Syria’s former ruler, led the artillery unit that shelled the city of Hama and killed thousands, earning him the nickname the “Butcher of Hama.”
Earlier this year, Rifaat Assad was indicted in Switzerland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Hama.
Tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have entered Lebanon illegally on the night of Assad’s fall earlier this month, when insurgent forces entered Damascus.
The Lebanese security and judicial officials said that more than 20 members of the former Syrian Army’s notorious 4th Division, military intelligence officers and others affiliated with Assad’s security forces were arrested earlier in Lebanon. Some of them were arrested when they attempted to sell their weapons.
Lebanon’s public prosecution office also received an Interpol notice requesting the arrest of Jamil Al-Hassan, the former director of Syrian intelligence under Assad. Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati previously told Reuters that Lebanon would cooperate with the Interpol request to arrest Al-Hassan.
Fresh air strike hits Sanaa, say Houthis
- Strikes came in response to series of Houthi attacks on Israel
- No immediate comment from Israel, the US or Britain
SANAA: An air strike hit Yemen’s capital on Friday, a day after deadly Israeli raids, according to the Iran-backed Houthis who blamed the US and Britain for the latest attack.
A Houthi statement cited “US-British aggression” for the new attack, as witnesses also reported the blast.
There was no immediate comment from Israel, the United States or Britain.
“I heard the blast. My house shook,” one resident of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa told AFP.
The attack followed Thursday’s Israeli raids on infrastructure including Sanaa’s international airport that left six people dead.
The strikes came in response to a series of Houthi attacks on Israel.
The Houthis have also been firing on the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping route for months, prompting a series of reprisal strikes by US and British forces.
Turkiye to allow pro-Kurdish party to visit jailed militant leader
- Militant leader Ocalan is serving life sentence in prison on the island of Imrali
- Pro-Kurdish DEM Party meeting is the first such visit in nearly a decade
ANKARA: Turkiye has decided to allow parliament’s pro-Kurdish DEM Party to hold face-to-face talks with militant leader Abdullah Ocalan on his island prison, the party said on Friday, setting up the first such visit in nearly a decade.
DEM requested the visit last month, soon after a key ally of President Tayyip Erdogan expanded on a proposal to end the 40-year-old conflict between the state and Ocalan’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
Ocalan has been serving a life sentence in a prison on the island of Imrali, south of Istanbul, since his capture 25 years ago.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, made the call a month after suggesting that Ocalan announce an end to the insurgency in exchange for the possibility of his release.
Erdogan described Bahceli’s initial proposal as a “historic window of opportunity.” After the latest call last month, Erdogan said he was in complete agreement with Bahceli on every issue and that they were acting in harmony and coordination.
“To be frank, the picture before us does not allow us to be very hopeful,” Erdogan said in parliament. “Despite all these difficulties, we are considering what can be done with a long-range perspective that focuses not only on today but also on the future.”
Bahceli regularly condemns pro-Kurdish politicians as tools of the PKK, which they deny.
DEM’s predecessor party was involved in peace talks between Ankara and Ocalan a decade ago, last meeting him in April 2015. The peace process and a ceasefire collapsed soon after, unleashing the most deadly phase of the conflict.
DEM MPs Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, who both met Ocalan as part of peace talks at the time, will travel to Imrali island on Saturday or Sunday, depending on weather conditions, the party said.
Turkiye and its Western allies designate the PKK a terrorist group. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the fighting, which in the past was focused in the mainly Kurdish southeast but is now centered on northern Iraq, where the PKK is based.
Growing regional instability and changing political dynamics are seen as factors behind the bid to end the conflict with the PKK. The chances of success are unclear as Ankara has given no clues on what it may entail.
Since the fall of Bashar Assad in Syria this month, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as an extension of the PKK, must disband, asserting that the group has no place in Syria’s future.
The YPG is the main component of the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
In a Reuters interview last week, SDF commander Mazloum Abdi acknowledged the presence of PKK fighters in Syria for the first time, saying they had helped fight Daesh and would return home if a total ceasefire was agreed with Turkiye, a core demand from Ankara.
Authorities in Turkiye have continued to crack down on alleged PKK activities. Last month, the government replaced five pro-Kurdish mayors in southeastern cities for suspected PKK ties, in a move that drew criticism from DEM and others.
Saudi Arabia and Arab countries condemn burning of Gaza hospital by Israeli forces
- Actions of troops are a ‘heinous war crime’ and ‘blatant violation of international law and humanitarian law,’ Jordanian Foreign Ministry says
- Qatar calls it a ‘dangerous escalation’ with potentially ‘dire consequences for the security and stability of the region’
LONDON: Saudi Arabia has condemned “in the strongest possible terms” Israel’s burning and clearing of one of the last hospitals that was still operating in northern Gaza.
Troops stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia on Friday, forcing staff and patients from the building and setting fire to it.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the attack and forced evacuation of patients and medical staff was in violation of international law and basic humanitarian and ethical standards.
Other Arab nations added their condemnation of Israel's actions, which come more than 14 months into a military operation in Gaza that has killed at least 45,000 Palestinians.
Jordan described Israel's raid on the hospital as a “heinous war crime.”
Sufian Al-Qudah, a spokesperson for Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the attack was a “blatant violation of international law and humanitarian law. Israel is also held accountable for the safety of the hospital’s patients and medical staff.”
Jordan categorically rejects the “systematic targeting of medical personnel and facilities,” he added, and this was an attempt to destroy facilities “essential to the survival of the people in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Al-Qudah urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks on civilians in Gaza.
The UAE Foreign Ministry also said the destruction of the hospital was “deplorable.”
The ministry statement “condemned and denounced in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation forces' burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital … and the forced evacuation of patients and medical personnel.”
Qatar denounced “in the strongest terms” the attack on the hospital as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
The country’s Foreign Ministry said it represented a “dangerous escalation of the ongoing confrontations, which threatens dire consequences for the security and stability of the region,” and called for the protection of the “hundreds of patients, wounded individuals and medical staff” from the hospital.
UN worker seriously hurt in Israeli Yemen strike moved to Jordan, WHO says
- WHO chief Tedros was at Sanaa airport with his team when Israel attacked
ZURICH: The UN worker hurt in an Israeli air strike on Yemen’s main international airport on Thursday suffered serious injuries and has been evacuated to Jordan for further treatment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Israel said it had struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said at least six people had been killed.
“Attacks on civilians and humanitarians must stop, everywhere. #NotATarget,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that showed him sitting in a plane looking across at what appeared to be the injured man.
Tedros was at the airport waiting to depart when the aerial bombardment took place that injured the man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service. A spokesperson for the WHO said the man had been seriously injured.
Tedros said he and the UN worker were now in Jordan.
The man underwent a successful surgical procedure prior to his evacuation for further treatment, Tedros said.
He had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff and to assess the humanitarian situation.
