Turkey hints at Syria operation amid discussions of NATO enlargement

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reviews the honor guard during a ceremony marking the docking of a submarine, in Kocaeli, Turkey, Monday, May 23, 2022. (AP Photo)
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Updated 24 May 2022
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Turkey hints at Syria operation amid discussions of NATO enlargement

  • Turkey’s operation is expected to focus on areas where the country is targeted the most by cross-border attacks
  • The announcement comes at a time in which Turkey is vehemently objecting to the NATO membership bids of Sweden and Finland

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Monday evening an impending military operation into northern Syria to establish a 30 km-deep safe zone along the southern border. 

Turkey’s operation is expected to focus on areas where the country is targeted the most by cross-border attacks. But Erdogan did not go into further detail. 

Turkish forces have launched three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016 and took control of areas along the border against threats from Daesh and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, listed as a terror group by Turkey. 

The withdrawal of the Syrian Kurdish forces up to 30 km into Syria was part of the Russia-Turkey deal in Sochi. 

The announcement comes at a time in which Turkey is vehemently objecting to the NATO membership bids of Sweden and Finland, citing the two Scandinavian countries’ support for the terror groups and their arms embargoes following Turkey’s previous Syria operation in 2019. 

Although the two countries deny any support given to the terror groups on their soil, Ankara asked Sweden and Finland for the extradition of 33 members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and an end to the ongoing military export bans to Turkey. 

Turkey considers the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK. 

The timing of the announcement, therefore, stirred debate about whether it would be part of a grand bargain between Turkey and the Western alliance to decrease its support for the Syrian Kurdish militants in exchange for Ankara lessening its pressure on the enlargement goals of the organization. 

Noah Ringler, an expert from Georgetown University, thinks the northwestern Syrian city of Tal Rifaat is the most likely target of the operation, while Kobane or Manbij is the next most likely option. 

“I believe Erdogan still seeks a broader deal with US President Joe Biden on NATO enlargement and the purchase of American-made F-16s and would not like to confront US forces further east near Al-Malikiyah,” he told Arab News. 

An operation in Tal Rifaat, situated halfway between Aleppo and the Turkish border, has been on the agenda for years as the YPG seized control in the region. The city houses Kurds who fled Afrin when Turkey carried out an operation there in 2018 to root the YPG out.  

Ankara, however, perceives a threat coming from the Tal Rifaat area, which is believed to be used by Kurdish forces to conduct cross-border attacks on Turkey. 

There have been several fire exchanges between Turkish forces and Syrian Kurdish militants for a couple of months. 

As Tal Rifaat is home to many refugees living in Kilis and Azaz and has limited Russian and Iranian presence, Ringler said that Russia is likely willing to let Turkey attack within certain areas with some pre-conditions, like ensuring the lack of Turkish sanctions on Russian goods and services. 

“Russia may also ask Turkey to put pressure on the PYD (Kurdish Democratic Union Party) to return them to the table with Syrian President Bashar Assad, as talks have stalled,” he added. 

Experts also note that any such operation could take advantage of Russia’s preoccupation with the invasion of Ukraine and US commitments to defend Taiwan against China.  

According to Ringler, Turkey’s drone strikes on the YPG in northeastern Syria have always been satisficing, as elections in Turkey draw near. 

“Erdogan considers taking new steps as vital to distract the attention from domestic issues and divide the opposition over Kurdish and Syrian issues,” he said. 

The details of the operation and the decision to launch it will however be discussed during Turkey’s National Security Council meeting on Thursday.

Whether the operation has or will have the green light from Russia and US is still unclear. 

“Turkish Armed Forces have the capacity to attack all of the above areas, but for political reasons it is likely the best for Erdogan to do sequential operations, threatening additional action closer to next year’s elections and in order to gain concessions from the US, Iran, Russia and the YPG,” said Ringler.

He added: “I think Assad’s forces will fight back like in February 2020, and the extent of Russian air support will be a key indicator of the extent to which Turkey is coordinating with Russia. Assad’s forces are unlikely to give up positions without trying to impose costs on Turkish-backed Syrian armed groups and the Turkish Armed Forces for their presence in Syria.”

According to Ringler, US Congressional elections will also play a role in negotiations with the US, as presidential powers do not allow Biden to lift some of the existing sanctions and Congress remains committed to arms sanctions on Turkey related to its S-400 Russian missile defense purchase and Operation Peace Spring into Syria. 

Currently hosting about 3.7 million refugees from Syria whose presence in the country has increasingly become a hot topic among several opposition parties pledging their immediate repatriation, Ankara has been discussing their resettlement to briquette houses in safe areas along the border. 

The Turkish government is also worried that public anger over the refugees’ widespread presence will dominate the upcoming election round and influence electoral preferences. 

The latest official figures revealed that 400-500 people are returning each week to the safe zones on the Turkey-Syria border. Since 2016, around half a million Syrians have returned to those zones, which are controlled by Ankara-backed groups.  

“The regions they returned to are Jarablus, A’zaz, Marea, Al-Bab, Ras Al-Ayn, and Tal Abyad. These are all safe regions in Syria that we have created,” Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu recently said.

However, the Syrian government considers the presence of safe zones as a kind of “colonialism” and “ethnic cleansing.” Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently urged the international community to stop Ankara from proceeding with its plans for building houses and local infrastructure in safe zones to send 1 million refugees back to their country.  

Caroline Rose, a senior analyst at the New Lines Institute, thinks that the recently announced Turkish military operation in northern Syria is certainly a tactic Ankara has employed to test Russia in Syria amid its intervention in Ukraine. 

“It is also a message Turkey is wishing to send following its opposition to Swedish and Finnish membership in NATO due to grievances related to the PKK, as well as to take advantage of Russian distraction in Ukraine to alter the status quo in Syria and deepen its footprint in the northeast,” she told Arab News. 

Rose, however, does not think the US will offer any public or private green light for this operation, nor will Russia publicly support it.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, in a statement on Tuesday, accused Turkey of “destabilizing the region.”

Navvar Saban, a military analyst at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies in Istanbul, believes there is always an opportunity for Turkey to launch a tactic operation targeting a specific area. 

“The most reasonable targets would be Tal Rifaat and Manbij. I don’t expect any operation on the eastern side of Syria. Turkey should concentrate its efforts and forces on controlling the strategic points on the M4 highway in Idlib that became a de facto frontier between Turkish-controlled pockets and Kurdish forces,” he told Arab News. 

Erdogan’s announcement also came a day before diplomatic delegations from Sweden and Finland landed in Ankara on Tuesday to discuss their NATO membership bid, where Turkey is expected to present some files on PKK activities during their meeting with the Turkish Presidential Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal on Wednesday. 


UK humanitarian agency report exposes systematic life-threatening conditions for Palestinians in Gaza

Updated 17 min 2 sec ago
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UK humanitarian agency report exposes systematic life-threatening conditions for Palestinians in Gaza

  • Findings underscore severe challenges facing Palestinian civilians during Israel’s war with Hamas

LONDON: A report released on Tuesday from Action for Humanity International, one of the UK’s leading humanitarian agencies operating in Gaza, reveals the conditions faced by internally displaced people after Israel’s displacement orders to Palestinian civilians.

The report claims that these orders, along with conditions in designated “humanitarian zones,” are creating life-threatening environments that amount to “systematic erasure.”

The findings underscore the severe challenges facing Palestinian civilians during Israel’s war with Hamas.

According to the survey, 15 percent of respondents were unable to evacuate due to disability or caregiving responsibilities, a reality compounded by the fact that 35 percent of people received less than an hour’s notice of evacuation orders.

The survey also found that 98 percent of respondents had been displaced several times, with nearly a quarter having been displaced 10 or more times in the past year.

In humanitarian zones conditions are reportedly dire.

According to the report, 73 percent of respondents described them as “poor” or “very poor,” with four out of five lacking sufficient access to food, and two-thirds unable to obtain clean drinking water. Additionally, 80 percent of respondents reported no access to adequate medical care.

Charles Lawley, director of communications and advocacy at AFH, criticized the treatment of Gaza’s civilians, saying that, in his view, the situation in Gaza amounted to “erasure in plain sight.”

“This report shows that Gaza is being erased in plain sight,” he said. “The so-called ‘evacuation orders’ — and I hesitate to call them that, as that is the language used by the Israeli military and implies it is doing the people of Gaza a favor by giving them a warning before bombing their homes — inflict terrors, are ambiguous and difficult to comply with, on the occasions they are given.”

Lawley further condemned the conditions in the so-called humanitarian zones.

“The conditions are not fit for humans ... with such damage to infrastructure, the bombing of Gaza, even with so-called evacuation orders, puts people who cannot afford the transport to escape and those with caregiving or physical barriers to escape — such as pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities — at a heightened risk of being killed, as escaping is even more difficult for them.”

In a strong rebuke of the ongoing military action, Lawley argued that the pattern of bombardment, ground incursions, and deprivation of basic resources suggested a coordinated strategy that “aligns with acts of extermination and genocide.”

He further suggested that recent reports indicating Israeli government intentions to annex Gaza raised additional concerns, noting that “these plans ... appear designed to inflict conditions of life aimed at the physical destruction of the group, in whole or in part ... as a strategic tool in broader aims for territorial annexation.”

The full report is available to read here


Israel’s Netanyahu dismisses defense minister in surprise announcement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant attend a press conference on October 28, 2023
Updated 48 min 52 sec ago
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Israel’s Netanyahu dismisses defense minister in surprise announcement

  • Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds throughout the war in Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday dismissed his popular defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in a surprise announcement that came as the country is embroiled in wars on multiple fronts across the region.
Netanyahu and Gallant have repeatedly been at odds over the war in Gaza. But Netanyahu had avoided firing his rival. Netanyahu cited “significant gaps” and a “crisis of trust” between the men in his Tuesday evening announcement.
“In the midst of a war, more than ever, full trust is required between the prime minister and defense minister,” Netanyahu said. “Unfortunately, although in the first months of the campaign there was such trust and there was very fruitful work, during the last months this trust cracked between me and the defense minister.”
In the early days of the war, Israel’s leadership presented a unified front as it responded to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack. But as the war dragged on and spread to Lebanon, key policy differences have emerged. While Netanyahu has called for continued military pressure on Hamas, Gallant had taken a more pragmatic approach, saying that military force has created the necessary conditions for a diplomatic deal that could bring home hostages held by the militant group.
Gallant, a former general who has gained public respect with a gruff, no-nonsense personality, said in a statement: “The security of the state of Israel always was, and will always remain, my life’s mission.”
Gallant has worn a simple, black buttoned shirt throughout the war in a sign of sorrow over the Oct. 7 attack and developed a strong relationship with his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
A previous attempt by Netanyahu to fire Gallant in March 2023 sparked widespread street protests against Netanyahu. He also flirted with the idea of dismissing Gallant over the summer but held off until Tuesday’s announcement.
Gallant will be replaced by Foreign Minister Israel Katz, a Netanyahu loyalist and veteran Cabinet minister who was a junior officer in the military. Gideon Saar, a former Netanyahu rival who recently rejoined the government, will take the foreign affairs post.
Netanyahu has a long history of neutralizing his rivals. In his statement, he claimed he had made “many attempts” to bridge the gaps with Gallant.
“But they kept getting wider. They also came to the knowledge of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse than that, they came to the knowledge of the enemy — our enemies enjoyed it and derived a lot of benefit from it,” he said.


Israel demolishes seven Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem

Updated 05 November 2024
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Israel demolishes seven Palestinian homes in east Jerusalem

  • Activist Fakhri Abu Diab, one of those affected by the demolition, confirmed that “at least seven homes have been demolished, and the operation is ongoing“
  • He said that both houses and apartments were affected

JERUSALEM: Municipal workers demolished seven homes in occupied east Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood on Tuesday, Palestinian residents and the municipality said, after an Israeli court called their construction illegal.
“This morning the Jerusalem Municipality, with a security escort from the Israel police, began its enforcement against illegal buildings in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan,” Jerusalem’s Israeli-controlled city hall said in a statement.
Activist Fakhri Abu Diab, one of those affected by the demolition, confirmed that “at least seven homes have been demolished, and the operation is ongoing.”
He said that both houses and apartments were affected.
“They demolished my home, which I had renovated after it was previously demolished earlier this year, as well as my son’s house, Haitham Ayed’s family home, and four homes belonging to the Al-Ruwaidi family,” Abu Diab told AFP.
He said around “40 people, including children, were affected by the demolitions in the neighborhood, leaving them homeless.”
An AFP photographer saw at least four bulldozers operating on Tuesday at demolition sites in the neighborhood under tight Israeli police supervision.
In a statement, Jerusalem city hall pointed to court orders that call for the demolition of the buildings due to zoning laws that make them illegal.
However, Palestinian residents and activists accuse the municipality of concealing its true intentions.
“The buildings, like most of the buildings in the neighborhood, are located on an area that is a green designation, that is, an open public area and where there is no possibility for zoning,” the municipality said, adding that the area would become a green zone instead.
Israeli rights group Ir Amim argued that the true aim of the demolitions is to connect Israeli settler pockets implanted in Palestinian areas to west Jerusalem.
The non-profit organization said in a statement that demolition, “encouraged by Israel’s right-wing government,” is expected to affect “115 homes, housing around 1,500 residents” in the neighborhood.
“The demolition of Al-Bustan and the displacement of its residents is an integral part of settlement efforts aimed at Judaising Silwan and transforming the area into a public park, facilitating connections between isolated settler communities in Silwan and linking them with West Jerusalem,” Ir Amim said.
It but did not specify the number of homes affected on Tuesday, as “the demolition is ongoing.”
Abu Diab echoed Ir Amim, saying the true aim of the demolitions was “to reduce the percentage of Arabs and alter the demographic composition of Jerusalem in favor of (Israeli) settlers,” connecting them to west Jerusalem.
Israel “is above international law, has escaped accountability, and is exploiting global focus on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and the US elections,” he said.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Some 230,000 Israeli settlers live in east Jerusalem, according to the United Nations. Another 3,000 live in Palestinian neighborhoods within east Jerusalem’s boundaries, according to Israeli rights organization Peace Now.


King Salman invites Najib Mikati to attend Arab-Islamic summit aimed at halting Israeli aggression

Updated 05 November 2024
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King Salman invites Najib Mikati to attend Arab-Islamic summit aimed at halting Israeli aggression

  • Residential buildings and vehicles targeted by Israeli airstrikes
  • Israeli army claims to have destroyed underground Hezbollah structures in the south

BEIRUT: The caretaker prime minister of Lebanon, Najib Mikati, received an invitation on Tuesday from King Salman bin Abdulaziz to participate in the extraordinary joint Arab-Islamic summit scheduled for Nov. 11 in Riyadh.

The summit will address Israeli assaults on the Palestinian people and Lebanese territories, coinciding with an increase in Israeli drone strikes in Beirut, southern Lebanon and Bekaa, resulting in further civilian casualties.

Mikati received the invitation from Waleed Bukhari, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon.

The invitation stated that participation in the summit is a “reaffirmation of Arab and Islamic solidarity in efforts to halt Israeli aggression and to promote the pursuit of a just resolution to the Palestinian issue, ensuring the rights of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Israel’s ground war in has completed its 44th day, and the toll since Hezbollah opened the southern front 13 months ago exceeds 3,000 dead and more than 13,000 wounded.

As the assaults diminished in the southern suburbs of Beirut, residents had the chance to inspect their homes and retrieve whatever belongings they could. However, the confrontations remained intense in the southern regions, and airstrikes continued in the south and in the Bekaa region.

Two Israeli airstrikes targeted the Jiyeh area, 28 km south of Beirut, killing a woman and wounding seven people — who were taken to Sibline Governmental Hospital.

Airstrikes hit a building near Sheikh Ragheb Harb Hospital in Toul, and a shop in Jwaya. An airstrike on the outskirts of Bazouriyeh caused injuries, while four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the town of Baflieh in the Tyre district.

An elderly woman, Ghadia Al-Suwaid, who had insisted on staying in her home in the border town of Al-Dhayra Al-Fawqa, was suspected to have been kidnapped by Israeli soldiers. The woman’s relatives told the National News Agency that “they entered the town in the morning and did not find her.”

Meanwhile, a Red Cross convoy, in coordination with UNIFIL, headed to Wata Khiam, also on the border, to complete the recovery of 15 bodies from rubble after airstrikes hit their home eight days ago.

The Red Cross retrieved five bodies two days ago, but larger machinery was needed to continue clearing the rubble.

An airstrike on the town of Deir Kifa killed two people and wounded several others.

Israeli military vehicles were seen advancing at the Shebaa Farms toward Al-Sadana heights and Shebaa Gate, where clashes were reported between Israeli forces and Hezbollah members.

On Tuesday morning, Israeli forces tried to infiltrate Rmeish but were forced to retreat after clashes with Hezbollah fighters, while in Haris an unknown motorcyclist was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

In Bekaa, an Israeli drone targeted a car on the road between Hortaala and Talia, carrying a displaced family from Baalbek. The raid killed three siblings, Nathalie, Raed and Mohammed Naji Dandash, and wounded their mother, Iman Fawzat Habib, who was transferred to Dar Al Amal University Hospital.

Hezbollah claimed to have struck “a gathering of Israeli soldiers in Doviv and Ma’ale Golani barracks, and another … in the hills of Kfar Shuba. We bombed an explosives factory in Hadera, south of Haifa, with a salvo of qualitative missiles.”

Israeli army spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, meanwhile, claimed that Israeli forces had destroyed “an underground infrastructure of about 70 meters long and confiscating weapons and rocket launchers in rugged and underground areas in southern Lebanon.”


Lebanon official says Israeli commandos jammed UNIFIL radar in abduction operation

Updated 05 November 2024
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Lebanon official says Israeli commandos jammed UNIFIL radar in abduction operation

  • The initial findings suggest that “the Israeli army used a high-speed vessel equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming radars” belonging to the UNIFIL
  • The probe into the abduction operation on Saturday is jointly conducted by the Lebanese police and judiciary

BEIRUT: A preliminary probe found that Israeli commandos used a speedboat equipped with radar-jamming devices to abduct a Lebanese man accused of being a Hezbollah operative, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP Tuesday.
The initial findings suggest that “the Israeli army used a high-speed vessel equipped with advanced devices capable of jamming radars” belonging to the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNIFIL) that monitors the Lebanese coast, the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The probe into the abduction operation on Saturday is jointly conducted by the Lebanese police and judiciary.
The UN peacekeeping Maritime Task Force has helped Lebanon’s army monitor territorial waters and prevent the entry of arms or related material by sea since 2006, according to the mission’s website.
Germany has headed UNIFIL’s maritime taskforce since January 2021.
On Saturday, Israeli naval commandos seized a trainee mariner that a military official described as a “senior operative” of Hezbollah in a raid in northern Lebanon and brought him to Israel for questioning.
An acquaintance of the abductee identified him as Imad Amhaz.
The man in his thirties was studying to become a sea captain at the Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute (MARSATI) in Batroun, Lebanon’s primary training college for the shipping industry.
Lebanese authorities “cannot probe UNIFIL forces or request they provide information or footage captured by their radars because they have immunity,” the judicial official said.
The official called the abduction “a war crime that violated national sovereignty” because it involved the kidnapping of a Lebanese citizen in an area far from the fighting.
Israel escalated its air raids on Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon, Beirut and the eastern Bekaa Valley on September 23, after nearly a year of cross-border fire. A week later it sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon.
At least 3,002 people have been killed in Lebanon since clashes between Hezbollah and Israel began last October, the health ministry said, including at least 1,964 since September 23, according to an AFP tally of official figures.