Türkiye says anti-Daesh coalition underway with Iraq, Jordan, Syria

Türkiye on Tuesday confirmed efforts were underway to form a coalition against the Daesh terrorist group with Iraq, Jordan and Syria.

“In order to ensure Daesh does not threaten Syria and Iraq again, we are forming a four-way coalition,” Deputy Foreign Minister Nuh Yılmaz told a parliamentary meeting of the Foreign Ministry in the capital, Ankara.

“This coalition will include all options from intelligence sharing to joint operations,” he said.

Daesh took over vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, but it lost its grip on the territory after campaigns by U.S.-backed forces in Syria and Iraq and Syrian forces backed by Iran, Russia and various paramilitaries.

A U.S.-led coalition force still raids Daesh cells in Syria. In addition, the U.S., under the pretext of this “fight” against Daesh, supplies military equipment and training to the PKK/YPG, a terrorist group holed out in northeastern Syria, despite protests by Türkiye, which both terrorist groups target.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan first signaled joint action against Daesh earlier this month, a day after Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to Ankara.

“Meetings will be held with these countries on foreign affairs, defense and intelligence for the fight against Daesh,” Fidan said, stressing Türkiye pursues regional solutions to regional problems.

“When non-regional hegemony is imposed to resolve the problems here, they leave a negative trail behind,” he said, referring to U.S. presence in Syria. “An international coalition (against Daesh) requires a certain budget and manpower. They will be spared from spending on these if they leave.”

U.S. President Donald Trump last month said he would soon make a “determination” regarding some 2,000 American troops in Syria.

Ankara and Washington are at loggerheads over the latter’s military cooperation with the YPG, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, the U.S. and Türkiye. The group is responsible for more than 40,000 deaths in Türkiye, including women and children. It maintains strongholds in northern Iraq and Syria to create a self-styled “Kurdish state.”

Swathes of northern Syria, including oil-rich areas, have been occupied by the PKK/YPG since 2015.

Ankara says the YPG/PKK is on par with Daesh and should have no presence in the new Syria.

Türkiye has mounted multiple operations against the PKK/YPG since 2016, and the Syrian National Army (SNA) has captured several YPG-occupied towns in the past months, including Manbij and Deir el-Zour, since a coalition of anti-regime forces led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Bashar Assad on Dec. 8.

Türkiye said it expects Trump to heed his NATO ally’s security concerns and pull back U.S. troops from northern Syria. Ankara has also threatened military action if the terrorist group refuses to disband.
Daesh detainees

Türkiye accuses the PKK/YPG of exploiting the crisis under Assad’s rule for its prison service to hold Daesh members.

Al-Hol, the largest internment camp in northeastern Syria, hosts more than 43,000 detainees from 47 countries, many of them family members of Daesh members.

Deputy Foreign Minister Yılmaz said Türkiye is aware of the U.S.’ security needs and that the issue of withdrawal from Syria was “up to them.”

“Türkiye has made concrete proposals on almost all issues that could be needed to meet the U.S.’ security needs, including the management of prisons housing Daesh members,” Yılmaz said.

He said Ankara offered Washington solutions to do its part, along with the new Syrian administration or Iraq, and to contribute to the fight against terrorism.

Fidan revealed Ankara and al-Sharaa’s interim government shared the “vision and capacity” to control YPG-run prisons for Daesh detainees.

“If the need arises to ensure the national integrity of Syria, they will liberate their lands from the occupation of those people (YPG). They will either send members of the PKK to the countries they arrived from or eliminate them,” he added.

The PKK/YPG has many terrorists in its ranks who arrived from Iran, Iraq, Türkiye or Europe, and Türkiye insists they must be driven out.

Türkiye also seeks cooperation from Iraq in the fight against the PKK. The PKK’s senior cadres are believed to be in hiding in mountainous territories in Iraq’s north and Türkiye has troops in the same region where it occasionally carries out operations against them.
Syria conference

Yılmaz is also scheduled to attend the international conference on Syria set to be held in Paris on Thursday, Turkish diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

The deputy minister will point out the importance of supporting and engaging with the new Syrian administration for the country’s stability.

He will underline the threats facing Syria, including the PKK/YPG and Türkiye’s determination to rid the country of terrorist elements, sources said.

The conference, the third of its kind following meetings in Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the past two months, is drawing participants from Syria, shareholders from the region and Europe-Atlantic, as well as representatives of relevant international organizations. The main topic is expected to be steps to be taken for Syria’s stability and security.
Trump’s Gaza plans

Yılmaz also responded to claims that Ankara’s comments came “too late” regarding Trump’s plans for Gaza, pointing out the swift condemnation from Minister Fidan.

Trump, in a shock announcement, said the U.S. intends to remove Gaza residents and transform the war-ravaged territory into what the president billed as a “Riviera of the Middle East.” He said the Palestinians would not have the right to return, triggering fears of a second Nakba, or “catastrophe,” for millions of Palestinians who live with the history of fleeing or being forced from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war.

“Türkiye has quickly expressed its stance on the matter,” Yılmaz said. “We have been doing everything we can (on the Palestinian issue) since the beginning.”

According to Yılmaz, as a first step, Ankara is working to call for an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in case Trump’s Gaza plan materializes.

Türkiye has done everything it can legally, too, Yılmaz continued. He listed the suspension of trade relations with Israel in May last year over its attacks on Gaza, which killed more than 48,000 people, mostly women and children, and left the enclave in ruins, and Turkish firms’ initiative to help resolve issues like low development and unemployment in Palestine.

“One of the top projects we aim for in that vein is the free industrial zone project to be built in the city of Jenin,” Yılmaz said.

Source » dailysabah.com