Turkiye warns it will target any ‘terrorland’ on its southern borders 

Smokes billows in Qamishli in northeastern Syria close to the Turkish border on December 25, 2023, amid Turkish military strikes in the area. (AFP)
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Updated 14 January 2024
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Turkiye warns it will target any ‘terrorland’ on its southern borders 

  • Airstrikes launched against outlawed Kurdish militant group in Iraq and Syria
  • PKK may be taking advantage of ‘changing dynamics in warfare technologies,’ analyst says

ANKARA: In the aftermath of the killing of nine Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq, Turkiye carried out a series of airstrikes against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Syria and Iraq.

“Turkiye will never allow the establishment of a ‘terrorland’ on its southern borders under any pretext and for any reason,” the official statement said after the security meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Saturday.

Simultaneously, more than 113 people were arrested in Turkiye over suspected links with the PKK, which Ankara and its Western allies classify as a terrorist group.

Along with military incursions in Syria, several airstrikes hit Hakurk, Metina, Gara and Qandil regions in northern Iraq, destroying caves, shelters, bunkers and oil facilities.

On Sunday, the Turkish intelligence organization announced that it “neutralized” Hasan Seburi, a PKK member responsible for intelligence gathering and surveillance against Turkiye, in Iraq’s Sulaymaniyah region.

Turkiye has been conducting Operation Claw-Lock in northern Iraq since April 2022, establishing several military points in the Duhok governorate to fight the group.

Three weeks ago, a Turkish base in northern Iraq was targeted by PKK-affiliated groups, resulting in the death of six Turkish soldiers. Another three soldiers were killed during clashes that followed the attack.

The recent escalation of PKK attacks against Turkish positions in the region is now under scrutiny.

Rich Outzen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, suggests that the PKK may be driven by a need to demonstrate its capability to inflict casualties on the Turkish military amid changing dynamics in warfare technologies.

“The advent of drone warfare, enhanced intelligence and precision strike in Iraq, Syria and southeastern Turkiye has badly eroded what once seemed like a serious military threat to Turkish forces,” he told Arab News.

“By selecting the most favorable circumstances — bad weather and very rugged terrain — PKK leadership focused efforts to achieve a very rare successful operation,” he said.

The second reason, Outzen believes, “is a desire to alter the trajectory of US policy in Iraq and Syria.”

Outzen said the US “has decreasing interest in Syria and decreasing rationale for continuing support to the YPG as Daesh recedes as a primary security concern in the region.”

In Iraq, “increasing tensions between pro-Iranian militias and US forces — as well as the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Peshmerga forces —   has put obstacles in the path of the PKK-friendly ‘Kurdish unity’ push that elements of the President Joe Biden’s administration have supported,” he said.

Outzen added: “By provoking Turkish overreaction and creating new pressure in Washington to protect and unify ‘the Kurds,’ the PKK hopes to renew its ability to leverage US policy against Turkiye.”

Finally, Outzen draws attention to the Iran factor. 

“Qandil has a long history of tacit deals with Tehran; the ascendance of the PKK in northeast Syria is largely a product of cooperative strategy among Assad, the  Revolutionary Guard Corps and Qandil,” he said.

“Tehran has its own reasons for wanting new escalations around the region in the period following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks against Israel, and it is likely that the PKK is serving as an instrumentality in that strategic approach,” he added.

The extent of Turkiye’s operations against PKK positions remains uncertain.

Outzen believes the PKK is operating near the limit of its operational reach, and that only under limited circumstances it is capable of engaging Turkish forces at a relative advantage — conditions that exist in the mountains between Iraq and Turkiye, but not on the plains in Syria or in southeast Turkiye.

“The question of how large Turkish counterattacks will be remains open, but a large-scale offensive against the PKK where it is most vulnerable, in Syria, is a possibility,” he said. 

Dr. Bilgay Duman, coordinator of Iraq studies at Ankara-based think tank ORSAM, said the PKK has recently shifted its tactics and is pursuing a different strategy, which can partly explain the increase in attacks against Turkish soldiers in the region.

“Previously, the PKK was launching attacks in spring. However, in the past couple of years, it began attacking Turkish military points during winter to establish control over the areas and to result in more casualties,” he told Arab News.

Dr. Duman said that there had been a PKK presence in almost eight mountainous areas in northern Iraq, resulting in the evacuation of about 800 villages in the zone. 

“Turkiye has been developing consecutive operations toward the region to break this dominance and to cut the logistic connections between different areas,” he said.

Duman said Turkiye “significantly narrowed down the territory of the PKK camps.”

He said Turkiye “also targets Qamisli and Al-Dirbasiyah in Syria, where the Syrian branch of the PKK is mainly located.”

But the presence of Turkish soldiers in the region “inevitably makes direct confrontation with the terror group a necessity,” he said. 

The PKK, which has launched a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984, claimed responsibility last October for an attack on the headquarters of the Turkish interior ministry in Ankara in which two police officers were injured.

Anticipating a more aggressive stance from the PKK as military pressure continues,  Duman said that Turkish counterterrorism authorities have already taken measures to confront any domestic security threat that may arise in retaliation to cross-border operations in Iraq and Syria.

“As long as the central government of Iraq and the KRG cannot actively counteract to contain the PKK, Turkiye is expected to continue its operations during winter and spring,” he said.


British parliamentarians demand sanctions on Israel in letter to PM

Updated 6 sec ago
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British parliamentarians demand sanctions on Israel in letter to PM

  • Group of 96 expresses ‘grave concern over the relentless violence against Palestinians’
  • They call for suspending UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement

LONDON: A group of 96 British parliamentarians have demanded sanctions on Israel in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The letter calls for the imposition of targeted sanctions, a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and a suspension of the trade agreement between the two countries.

“We write to express our grave concern over the relentless violence against Palestinians throughout the Occupied Palestinian territory and urge the United Kingdom to respond to Israel’s widespread and systematic violations of international law,” it says.

Citing escalating Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the letter warns that recent British decisions to sanction settler organizations linked to human rights abuses “fall short of what is needed.”

The UK also risks complicity in Israeli violations of international law due to “continued diplomatic and economic transactions, and ties with Israeli institutions and settler organizations,” it adds.

The signatories called on the government to “move beyond sanctioning individual settlers but sanction state officials, including ministers, and introduce sanctions in respect of the State of Israel.”

The UK must also implement a total ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the letter says, adding that such a move is mandatory based on decisions by the International Court of Justice and the UN, of which the UK is a member state, with both organizations clearly defining settlement-building in the occupied territories as illegal.

London should also suspend the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, the signatories said, citing the deal’s highlighting of respect for human rights as an “essential element.”

Israel’s breaching of that term means the UK has the “legal right to suspend or terminate its provisions, in whole or in part,” the letter says.

The Council for Arab-British Understanding’s head of parliamentary affairs, Joseph Willits, said: “This letter shows that there is increasing parliamentary support for the UK to take tougher action against Israel.

“As Palestinians face violent erasure, including Israeli imposed genocide, starvation and ethnic cleansing, the UK government simply is not doing enough, and an increasing number of parliamentarians are also coming to this realization.

“What will it take for UK government action to match up with the horrifying situation and systemic violence on the ground, and to act on what parliamentarians, the British public, and most importantly, Palestinians have long been saying?”


Israeli left-wing leader calls for immediate end to Gaza war

Updated 11 min 23 sec ago
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Israeli left-wing leader calls for immediate end to Gaza war

  • Netanyahu’s government does not represent vast majority of people, Yair Golan says

JERUSALEM: Israeli left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan called on Monday for an immediate end to the Gaza war and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government no longer represented most Israelis.

“Today the government of Israel does not represent the vast majority of Israelis,” said Golan, chairman of the Democrats party and a former deputy army chief, days before a planned parliament vote which the opposition hopes would trigger a general election.
He told journalists in a briefing that after more than 20 months of fighting, Israel “should end the war as soon as possible.”
Golan’s party, a conglomeration of left-wing factions, has only four seats in Israel’s 120-member legislature, making it one of its smallest political groups.
But in a country where coalition building is essential to achieving a political majority, even relatively small parties can wield considerable power.

FASTFACT

Yair Golan’s party, a conglomeration of left-wing factions, has only four seats in Israel’s 120-member legislature, making it one of its smallest political groups.

Golan, a former deputy minister in a short-lived administration that replaced Netanyahu in 2021-2022, said that the current government — one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history — was a threat to democracy.
The opposition leader said he represents those “who want to save Israeli democracy ... from a corrupted future” and the “messianic-like and nationalistic and extremist vision of a very small faction in the Israeli society.”
“The vast majority wants to keep Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and at the same time a free, egalitarian and democratic state,” Golan said.
He said that the vast majority of Israelis wanted to see an immediate end to the war in Gaza, the return of all hostages held by Palestinian militants in a single exchange deal, and the establishment of a national commission of inquiry into Hamas’s unprecedented 2023 attack, arguing that the Netanyahu government was opposed to these objectives.
“I believe that we can reach a hostage deal in a matter of days,” Golan said.
“I believe that by ending the war and freeing the hostages, we will be able to build an alternative to Hamas inside the Gaza Strip.”
Criticizing the government’s Gaza war policies, the former army general has recently drawn condemnation in Israel for saying that “a sane country ... does not kill babies for a hobby.”
Golan on Monday also said that most Israelis support legislation that would require ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who are currently largely exempt from military service, to enlist.
The issue has sparked tension between Netanyahu and ultra-Orthodox parties in his government, with lawmakers threatening to topple the prime minister if no agreement is reached this week.
Some opposition parties are seeking to place a bill to dissolve parliament on Wednesday’s plenary agenda, hoping to capitalize on the ultra-Orthodox revolt.
“The vast majority wants new elections as soon as possible,” Golan said.

 


King Abdullah II urges global ocean action at UN conference, holds key talks on Middle East stability

Updated 09 June 2025
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King Abdullah II urges global ocean action at UN conference, holds key talks on Middle East stability

  • Jordanian ruler highlights threat to ‘vital shared resource’ from climate change, overexploitation, biodiversity loss
  • King warns of dangerous consequences of further escalation in West Bank and Jerusalem, and calls for renewal of ceasefire

LONDON: King Abdullah II delivered Jordan’s national address at the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice on Monday, underlining the urgent need for global action to protect oceans and marine life, the Jordan News Agency reported.

The week-long conference, co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, has brought together hundreds of international leaders, officials, and experts to address the pressing environmental challenges facing the world’s seas.

In his remarks, King Abdullah described oceans as “a vital shared resource, sustaining billions of lives,” but warned that they are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, overexploitation, and biodiversity loss.

“This is a critical moment in time for action,” the king added, stressing the need for international collaboration to preserve marine ecosystems.

King Abdullah highlighted Jordan’s embrace of science as a tool for transformation, noting that the Gulf of Aqaba’s coral reefs show exceptional resilience to extreme temperatures. This unique feature, he said, positions Jordan as a global hub for marine research that could help save coral reefs worldwide.

To advance this vision, he announced the launch of two key initiatives: Aqaba Blue Ventures and the Global Center for Ocean Regeneration.

These projects will provide platforms to test new technologies that can be scaled up for global application, he added.

On the sidelines of the conference, King Abdullah held a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, during which he affirmed Jordan’s readiness to strengthen cooperation with France across various sectors, JNA reported.

King Abdullah held a bilateral meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron. (JNA)

The leaders stressed the importance of maintaining coordination on regional issues and called for immediate international efforts to reinstate a ceasefire in Gaza and facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid.

The king warned of the dangerous consequences of continued escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem, reiterating that granting Palestinians their full legitimate rights remained the only path to lasting regional stability.

He also commended France’s role in promoting peace in the Middle East, particularly through its upcoming international conference in New York from June 17-20, organized in partnership with Saudi Arabia.

The meeting was attended by Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Jordan’s ambassador to France Lina Al-Hadid.

Also on Monday, King Abdullah held additional high-level meetings with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, Prince Albert II of Monaco, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

King Abdullah also held additional high-level meetings with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides. (JNA)

The talks were part of the king’s broader diplomatic efforts to mobilize international support for the rights of the Palestinian people.

During the discussions, King Abdullah again stressed that a two-state solution was the only viable route to regional peace and highlighted the importance of the forthcoming New York conference.

He also reiterated the need to restore the ceasefire in Gaza, guarantee unimpeded delivery of aid, and put an end to unilateral measures in the West Bank and Jerusalem.


Israel ultra-Orthodox party threatens government over draft law

Updated 09 June 2025
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Israel ultra-Orthodox party threatens government over draft law

JERUSALEM: Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Shas party on Monday threatened to bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government by backing a motion for early elections amid a row over military service.
Netanyahu’s coalition, one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history, is at risk of collapsing over a bill that could reverse the long-standing exemption from the draft for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The exemption is facing growing pushback as Israel wages war on Palestinian Islamist militants Hamas in Gaza.
Netanyahu is under pressure from within his Likud party to draft more ultra-Orthodox men and impose penalties on draft dodgers — a red line for Shas.
The party is demanding legislation to permanently exempt its followers from military service and gave Netanyahu two days to find a solution.
“We don’t want to bring down a right-wing government, but we’ve reached our limit,” Shas spokesperson Asher Medina told public radio.
“If there’s no last-minute solution (on conscription), we’ll vote to dissolve the Knesset,” he said, referring to the Israeli parliament.
Last week, a Shas source told AFP the party was threatening to quit the coalition unless a solution was reached by Monday.
The opposition is seeking to place a bill to dissolve parliament on Wednesday’s plenary agenda, hoping to capitalize on the ultra-Orthodox revolt to topple the government.
Netanyahu’s coalition, formed in December 2022, includes Likud, far-right factions and ultra-Orthodox parties. A walkout by the latter would end its majority.
A poll published in March by right-wing daily Israel Hayom found 85 percent of Israeli Jews support changing the conscription law for Haredim.
Forty-one percent backed compulsory military service — currently 32 months for men — for all eligible members of the community.


British surgeon says only people she saw in Gaza with guns were Israeli troops

Updated 09 June 2025
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British surgeon says only people she saw in Gaza with guns were Israeli troops

  • Dr. Victoria Rose saw no evidence for claims that Hamas uses hospitals as bases
  • Palestinian enclave’s population ‘on their knees’ with ‘a lot of avoidable deaths’

LONDON: A British surgeon who worked in Gaza has said she never saw anyone in the Palestinian enclave with weapons except Israeli soldiers.

Dr. Victoria Rose told Sky News that there had been a “real escalation in the bombing campaign” in Gaza that had left the population “on their knees.”

Hospitals, despite being protected under international law, have frequently been targeted by Israel since the war began in October 2023.

The Israel Defense Forces claim that hospitals are often used as bases by Hamas, but the National Health Service plastic surgeon said she had seen no evidence that this is the case.

Rose told the “Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips” program: “I’ve never treated or seen anyone — in any of the hospitals that I’ve worked in — in military uniform or with a weapon. The only people I’ve ever seen in Gaza with military uniforms and weapons are the IDF.”

She said the toll that the war is taking on medics in Gaza is catastrophic, adding: “Lots of my Palestinian colleagues were telling me that they’d rather die than carry on with this war.”

The public health situation in Gaza has been worsened by the ongoing food crisis in the enclave, with vital aid being blocked from entering by the Israeli military for several months. 

Rose said malnutrition is a severe problem in Gaza, especially among children. When she was in the enclave, “infection rates were soaring,” she added.

“We were seeing a lot of avoidable deaths, a lot of small children dying from sepsis that would’ve been prevented if they’d been in in the Western world.”