PARIS: France and Germany accused Turkey on Thursday of continuing to provoke the European Union with its actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and gave it a week to clarify its positions.
Despite an EU summit deal on Oct. 2 aimed at persuading Ankara to stop exploring for natural gas in waters disputed by Greece and Cyprus, Turkey said on Wednesday it was restarting operations of a survey ship.
Turkey withdrew the vessel last month, just before the EU summit, at which economic sanctions were discussed, only to redeploy it on Monday.
The bloc said it would review the possibility of sanctions on Turkey at a European summit in December.
“It’s clear to us that Turkey is permanently carrying out provocative acts which are unacceptable,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a news conference alongside his German and Polish counterparts.
He said the ball was in Ankara's court, but that the European Union was ready to change the balance of power if Turkey didn't return to dialogue.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Turkey's decision to send the vessel back to the Mediterranean was "inadmissible".
Asked about the possibility of bringing forward EU sanctions, he said the bloc would to decide how to react in the coming weeks.
"It's been twice that expected discussions have not taken place and we don't know when they will happen," he said. "We must wait to see if there is progress in the next weeks and then we'll see what attitude needs to be adopted by the EU."
Le Drian criticised Turkey's role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, where it supports Azerbaijan against ethnic Armenians.
"There will not be a military victory on this issue so the ceasefire must be implemented," he said. "What we can see today is the only country which isn't calling for respect of the ceasefire is Turkey and that's damaging."
France and Germany tell Turkey to stop provocations
https://arab.news/5jp2y
France and Germany tell Turkey to stop provocations
- Turkey said on Wednesday it was restarting operations of a survey ship
- The EU said it would review the possibility of sanctions on Turkey at a European summit in December
Assad forces injured 35 in 2016 chlorine attack: watchdog
- “There are reasonable grounds to believe that one Mi8/17 helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force dropped at least one yellow pressurised cylinder,” OPCW said
- The team interviewed dozens of witnesses, analyzed samples and reviewed satellite images
THE HAGUE: Former Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces deployed chlorine gas in a 2016 attack that injured at least 35 people, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog concluded Thursday.
The October 2016 attack near a field hospital outside the town of Kafr Zeita, in western Syria, was already well-documented but the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for the first time accused Assad’s forces.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that one Mi8/17 helicopter of the Syrian Arab Air Force dropped at least one yellow pressurised cylinder,” the OPCW said in a report.
“Upon impact, the cylinder ruptured and released chlorine gas, which dispersed through the Wadi Al-Aanz valley, injuring 35 named individuals and affecting dozens more,” OPCW investigators concluded.
The team interviewed dozens of witnesses, analyzed samples and reviewed satellite images.
Assad was repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war, and there has been widespread concern about the fate of Syria’s stocks since his 2024 ouster.
In a landmark speech last year, the foreign minister of the new Syrian government pledged to dismantle any remnants of Assad’s chemical weapons program.
The OPCW welcomed the “full and unfettered access” the new Syrian authorities granted their investigators.
It was the “first instance of cooperation by the Syrian Arab Republic with an... investigation,” the OPCW said.
The OPCW wants to establish a permanent presence in Syria to draw up an inventory of chemical weapons sites and start the destruction of the stockpiles.
