Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan accused the West, Russia and Iran of all seeking to further their own interests in Syria and said on Wednesday he feared a US-Russian ceasefire plan would do little more than benefit President Bashar al-Assad.
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However John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said he could not confirm whether the image was authentic and that “nothing has changed about our policy of not providing the (Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Unit) with weapons”. Ankara has regularly denied such accusations, saying that it is impossible for extremists to cross from Turkey into Syria since measures to seal off the border were recently taken by the Turkish authorities. “Turkey has played an active role in the making of this decision”, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara. The truce, however, does not apply to groups designated by the United Nations as terror organizations, such as Islamic State and Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
“All must know that this ceasefire is only valid for Syria and the warring sides in the country”.
In his report, Philip Gordon advised the U.S. authority to hold a high-level secret meeting with Russian Federation and said that a ceasefire or de-escalation of violence would be impossible without Moscow’s approval. British media said McGarry was visiting Turkey as part of a campaign calling on the government to release Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan on the 17th anniversary of his imprisonment.
Russia’s government-funded RT television said, “If the Kurdish YPG fighters have been armed with Javelin anti-tank missiles by Washington, it is a move that will not go down well with Turkey”.
(JNS.org) The United States and Russian Federation have announced that a planned cease-fire in Syria will come into effect by midnight on February 27, in the latest effort by world powers to end the bloody five-year-old Syrian civil war.
Though the USA would prefer not to allow Assad to remain in his position, it would be better than the current war, he said.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for several bombings in Syria in recent weeks. The source says that at least 45 IS militants, as well as 20 Kurdish fighters, were killed in the clashes.
It is not clear exactly where along Syria’s complicated front lines the fighting would stop and for how long – or where counterterrorism operations could continue.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday told state-run Anadolu Agency that Saudi aircraft will arrive “today or tomorrow” at the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey to join the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
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The SANA news agency says government troops on Friday took three villages near the town of Khanaser, which they recaptured from the IS group the previous day. IS is not included in the cease-fire.
