DAMASCUS: President Bashar Assad said Sunday the withdrawal of Turkish forces from its territory was not a pre-requisite to a rapprochement between the estranged neighbors.
“It’s not correct what was announced by some Turkish officials recently, that Syria said if there is no withdrawal, it will not meet with the Turks,” Assad told parliament on Sunday.
“This talk is far from reality,” he added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Assad after civil war broke out in the country in 2011, but reversed course in recent years.
Since 2022, top Syrian and Turkish officials have met for Russia-mediated talks, with Moscow pushing for a detente.
Turkish troops and Turkiye-backed rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria, and Ankara has launched successive cross-border offensives since 2016, mainly to clear the area of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Turkiye sees the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a “terrorist” group.
In July, Erdogan said he might invite Assad to Turkiye “at any moment,” in a sign of reconciliation.
Assad said later that month he was open to meeting Erdogan but it depended on the encounter’s “content,” noting Turkiye’s presence in Syria was a key sticking point.
Syria’s war began after the repression of anti-government protests in 2011 and has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
Turkiye hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees out of a population of 85 million, according to United Nations data.
Their future regularly comes up in Turkish political debate, with some opponents of Erdogan promising to send them back to Syria.
Assad says Turkiye rapprochement doesn’t depend on troop withdrawal
https://arab.news/44y4b
Assad says Turkiye rapprochement doesn’t depend on troop withdrawal
- Syria’s war began after the repression of anti-government protests in 2011 and has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions
Fog temporarily halts flights at Baghdad airport
- A thick fog has blanketed the capital Baghdad and several areas in Iraq, drastically reducing visibility since the early morning hours
BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities temporarily closed Baghdad International Airport early Thursday due to a thick fog that has reduced visibility, the transport ministry said.
At around 12:30 am (2130 GMT), the ministry announced that “Baghdad International Airport has been temporarily closed to air traffic due to bad weather conditions and reduced visibility,” according to the official INA press agency.
Baghdad and other airports — Najaf in central Iraq and Sulaimaniyah in the Kurdistan region — will remain closed until at least midday, the ministry said in a new statement.
A thick fog has blanketed the capital Baghdad and several areas in Iraq, drastically reducing visibility since the early morning hours, according to AFP correspondents.
Heavy rains over the past two days caused flooding in several areas in Iraq, particularly in the northern autonomous Kurdistan region.
Floods in the north killed at least three people, including a child, according to local authorities. A key bridge connecting the northern city of Kirkuk to Baghdad also collapsed.
Authorities hope the heavy rains will help alleviate water shortages in drought-stricken Iraq, after water reserves in artificial lakes hit their lowest levels in the country’s recent history following a dry season.
Iraq, heavily impacted by climate change, has been ravaged for years by drought and low rainfall.
