ISTANBUL: Turkey said on Thursday it had stopped training peshmerga forces in northern Iraq in response to a Kurdish independence vote there, whose backers had thrown themselves “into the fire.”
The Kurdish peshmerga have been at the forefront of the campaign against Daesh and been trained by NATO-member Turkey’s military since late 2014.
Northern Iraq’s main link to the outside world, Turkey views Monday’s vote — which final results on Wednesday showed overwhelming in favor of independence from Baghdad — as a clear security threat.
Fearing it will inflame separatism among its own Kurds, Ankara had already threatened military and economic measures in retaliation. Government spokesman Bekir Bozdag reiterated on Thursday any such actions would be coordinated with the Iraqi central government.
Bozdag, also a deputy prime minister, told broadcaster TGRT in an interview that more steps would follow the peshmerga decision and that the prime ministers of Turkey and Iraq would meet soon.
Turkey, which is home to the region’s largest Kurdish population, is battling a three-decade Kurdish insurgency in its southeast, which borders northern Iraq.
Disappointment
President Tayyip Erdogan said it was inevitable that the referendum “adventure” in northern Iraq, carried out despite Turkey’s warnings, would end in disappointment.
“With its independence initiative, the northern Iraq regional government has thrown itself into the fire,” he said in a speech to police officers at his palace in Ankara.
Earlier this week, Erdogan said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halted the flow of trucks and oil across the border, near where Turkish and Iraqi soldiers have been carrying out military exercises this week.
Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day flow through a pipeline in Turkey from northern Iraq, connecting the region to global oil markets.
Erdogan has repeatedly threatened economic sanctions, but has given few details.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would not shy away from giving the harshest response to a national security threat on its border, but that this was not its first choice.
Speaking in the central Turkish province of Corum, Yildirim said Turkey, Iran and Iraq were doing their best to overcome the crisis caused by the referendum with the minimum damage.
Iraq, including the Kurdish region, was Turkey’s third-largest export market in 2016, according to IMF data. Turkish exports to the country totalled $8.6 billion, behind Germany and Britain.
Turkey stops training peshmerga forces
Turkey stops training peshmerga forces
‘No good actors’ in Sudan war, says Trump’s Middle East adviser
- Resolving conflict a ‘deeply felt concern’ of US president, Massad Boulos tells UN Security Council
- ‘Today, Sudan faces the biggest and gravest humanitarian catastrophe in the world’
LONDON: A senior adviser to US President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized Sudan’s warring factions as he warned that no military solution could resolve the civil war.
Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser on African, Arab and Middle Eastern affairs, was speaking at a ministerial-level UN Security Council briefing on Sudan.
A UN fact-finding mission has determined that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ siege of the city of El-Fasher likely constituted genocide.
Resolving the almost three-year-long war in Sudan is a “deeply felt concern” of Trump, Boulos told the briefing, which was chaired by UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
“Under President Trump and Secretary (of State Marco) Rubio’s leadership and close direction, I am helping to spearhead US efforts to achieve peace in Sudan,” he said.
“Today, Sudan faces the biggest and gravest humanitarian catastrophe in the world. After more than 1,000 days of needless conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, the toll is staggering.”
In the eyes of the US, “there are no good actors in this conflict,” Boulos said, criticizing both factions for carrying out “serious human rights violations and abuses.”
He highlighted apparent efforts by coordinated Islamist networks to regain political influence in the fractured Sudanese state.
“Let me be clear: Efforts by Islamist networks or any extremist political movement to manipulate this conflict, derail a civilian transition, or reassert authoritarian control will not be tolerated by the US,” Boulos said.
“We will use the tools at our disposal — including sanctions and other measures — to hold accountable those who enable violence, undermine democratic governance, or threaten regional stability.”
His remarks came as the US announced fresh sanctions on RSF commanders, citing their record of “human rights violations, including ethnic killings, torture, starvation tactics and sexual violence.”
The paramilitary figures are now “subject to asset freezes, arms embargoes and travel bans,” Boulos said, adding: “We are working closely with partners in this room — including the United Kingdom, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and several others — to press for an immediate humanitarian truce, and without preconditions.
“Such a truce must guarantee sustained, unhindered humanitarian access across conflict lines and borders.”
He urged the international community to support five pillars of engagement to resolve the crisis: achieving an immediate humanitarian truce; coordinated efforts to ensure sustained humanitarian access; a phased approach for negotiating a permanent ceasefire; a structured political process that leads to a civilian-led transitional government and democratic elections; and a robust reconstruction and recovery effort.
“The US remains committed to working with all of you to end this tragic conflict and to support a peaceful, civilian future for Sudan,” Boulos said.
