Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Sunday, Turkey’s foreign ministry said, without providing further details.
Photographs and footage shared by the ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, leader of Muslim group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which led the operation to topple former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad two weeks ago, walk ahead of a crowded delegation before posing for photographs.
The two were also pictured shaking hands, hugging and smiling.
Photo: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs via EPA-EFE
On Friday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey would help Syria’s new administration form a state structure and draft a new constitution, adding that Fidan would head to Damascus to discuss this new structure, without providing a date.
Turkish National Intelligence Organization Director Ibrahim Kalin also visited Damascus on Dec. 12, four days after al-Assad’s fall.
Ankara had for years backed rebels looking to oust al-Assad and welcomed the end of his family’s brutal five-decade rule after a 13-year civil war. Turkey also hosts millions of Syrian migrants it hopes would start returning home after al-Assad’s fall and has vowed to help rebuild Syria.
Fidan’s visit comes amid fighting in northeast Syria between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the northeast and Ankara regards as a terrorist organization.
Earlier, Turkish Minister of National Defense Yasar Guler said Ankara believed that Syria’s new leadership, including the Syrian National Army armed group which Ankara backs, would drive YPG fighters from all territory they occupy in the northeast.
Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the Kurdish faction in northern Syria and controls swathes of Syrian territory along the border, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the Kurdish fighters.
The SDF has been on the back foot since al-Assad’s fall, with the threat of advances from Ankara and Turkey-backed groups as it looks to preserve political gains made in the last 13 years, and with Syria’s new rulers being friendly to Ankara.
Tunisian President Kais Saied yesterday condemned a European Parliament resolution on human rights calling for the release of his critics as “blatant interference.” The EU Parliament resolution, voted by an overwhelming majority the day before, called for the release of lawyer Sonia Dahmani, a popular critic of Saied, who was freed from prison on Thursday, but remained under judicial supervision. “The European Parliament [resolution] is a blatant interference in our affairs,” Saied said. “They can learn lessons from us on rights and freedoms.” Saied’s condemnation also came two days after he summoned the EU’s ambassador for “failing to respect diplomatic rules.” He also
Tropical Storm Koto killed three people and left another missing as it approached Vietnam, authorities said yesterday, as strong winds and high seas buffeted vessels off the country’s flood-hit central coast. Heavy rains have lashed Vietnam’s middle belt in recent weeks, flooding historic sites and popular holiday destinations, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Authorities ordered boats to shore and diverted dozens of flights as Koto whipped up huge waves and dangerous winds, state media reported. Two vessels sank in the rough seas, a fishing boat in Khanh Hoa province and a smaller raft in Lam Dong, according to the
Sri Lanka made an appeal for international assistance yesterday as the death toll from heavy rains and floods triggered by Cyclone Ditwah rose to 123, with another 130 reported missing. The extreme weather system has destroyed nearly 15,000 homes, sending almost 44,000 people to state-run temporary shelters, the Sri Lankan Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. DMC Director-General Sampath Kotuwegoda said relief operations had been strengthened with the deployment of thousands of troops from the country’s army, navy and air force. “We have 123 confirmed dead and another 130 missing,” Kotuwegoda told reporters in Colombo. Cyclone Ditwah was moving away from the island yesterday and
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
RSS