ISTANBUL: An agreement to integrate autonomous Kurdish institutions in Syria’s northeast into the new Syrian national government will “serve peace,” Turkiye’s president said on Tuesday.
“The full implementation of the agreement reached yesterday will serve Syria’s security and peace. The winner will be all of our Syrian brothers,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a Ramadan fast breaking dinner.
Syria’s new authorities under interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa have sought to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entirety of the country since ousting long-time leader Bashar Assad in December after more than 13 years of civil war.
On Monday, the Syrian presidency announced an agreement with the head of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the autonomous Kurdish administration that has governed much of the northeast for the past decade into the national government.
The new accord is expected to be implemented by the end of the year.
The SDF — seen essential in the fight against Daesh terrorists — is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as an offshoot of the PKK, an outlawed group dominated by ethnic Kurds in Turkiye which has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
Turkiye, which has forged close relations with Sharaa, has pressed Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of the YPG’s control over wide parts of Syria.
On Tuesday, Erdogan said Turkiye attached “great importance to preserving the territorial integrity and unitary structure of our neighbor Syria.”
He added: “We see every effort to cleanse Syria of terrorism as a step in the right direction.”
The agreement comes nearly two weeks after a historic call by jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) founder Abdullah Ocalan for the militant group to lay down its weapons and disband.
Erdogan says Syria’s agreement with Kurds will ‘serve peace’
https://arab.news/v6qng
Erdogan says Syria’s agreement with Kurds will ‘serve peace’
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan: ‘The winner will be all of our Syrian brothers’
- Turkiye has pressed Syria’s new rulers to address the issue of the YPG’s control over wide parts of the country
Israeli settlers target wells, disrupt water supply to 19 Palestinian areas near Ramallah
- Settlers broke windows, doors, control panels and cut the cables rendering the wells completely inoperable
- Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes and businesses have increased since October 2023
LONDON: Israeli settlers attacked water wells in the Ein Samia area, northeast of Ramallah, overnight, causing a disruption in the water supply for several hours, according to the Jerusalem District Water Department's report on Sunday.
The Palestinian Authority’s water authority reported that settlers targeted wells number two, four, and six in Ein Samia, disrupting their operation from Saturday at 10 p.m. until Sunday at 9 a.m. The attackers broke windows, doors, control panels and cut the cables, rendering the wells completely inoperable.
It warned that attacks on the primary water source jeopardized access to water for over 19 areas in the occupied West Bank, worsening the difficulties faced by residents near Ramallah.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian homes and businesses have increased since October 2023.
These incidents include vandalism, arson, shootings, and the destruction of agricultural lands and water sources, often intended to pressure residents into leaving their land. Israeli authorities often provide protection for settlers during attacks, including military deployment to accompany them and suppress local resistance, the Wafa news agency reported.
Excluding East Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, along with about 3 million Palestinian residents.
