ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday he would order an intervention to prevent any splintering of Syria, a warning aimed particularly at the country’s Kurdish forces.
“We can not accept under any pretext that Syria be divided and if we notice the slightest risk we will take the necessary measures,” the Turkish head of state said, adding that “we have the means.”
Erdogan’s warning is the latest aimed at the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces and to the United States, which backed the SDF’s offensive against Daesh.
Saying there is no room for “terror” in Syria, Erdogan said that “should the risk present itself, we could intervene in one night.”
At least 100 people died in fighting over the weekend between pro-Turkish factions and the Kurdish-dominated People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF.
Ankara considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been in an armed struggle with the Turkish state since the 1980s and is classified by Turkiye and its Western allies as a terrorist movement.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had said that “the elimination of the PKK/YPG is only a matter of time,” raising the possibility that the movement could join the Syrian government and lay down its arms.
But he warned that Western countries should not use the threat of Daesh as “a pretext to strengthen the PKK.”
Turkiye’s Erdogan says ready to intervene to prevent any division of Syria
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Turkiye’s Erdogan says ready to intervene to prevent any division of Syria
- Erdogan’s warning is the latest aimed at Kurdish-dominated SDF and to the US, which backed the SDF’s offensive against Daesh
Algeria inaugurates strategic railway to giant Sahara mine
- The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030
- The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium
ALGEIRS: Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday inaugurated a nearly 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) desert railway to transport iron ore from a giant mine, a project he called one of the biggest in the country’s history.
The line will bring iron ore from the Gara Djebilet deposit in the south to the city of Bechar located 950 kilometers north, to be taken to a steel production plant near Oran further north.
The project is financed by the Algerian state and partly built by a Chinese consortium.
During the inauguration, Tebboune described it as “one of the largest strategic projects in the history of independent Algeria.”
This project aims to increase Algeria’s iron ore extraction capacity, as the country aspires to become one of Africa’s leading steel producers.
The iron ore deposit is also seen as a key driver of Algeria’s economic diversification as it seeks to reduce its reliance on hydrocarbons, according to experts.
President Tebboune attended an inauguration ceremony in Bechar, welcoming the first passenger train from Tindouf in southern Algeria and sending toward the north a first charge of iron ore, according to footage broadcast on national television.
The mine is expected to produce 4 million tons per year during the initial phase, with production projected to triple to 12 million tons per year by 2030, according to estimates by the state-owned Feraal Group, which manages the site.
It is then expected to reach 50 million tons per year in the long term, it said.
The start of operations at the mine will allow Algeria to drastically reduce its iron ore imports and save $1.2 billion per year, according to Algerian media.
