DAMASCUS —
Iran’s foreign minister warned Saturday on a visit to Damascus that Turkish
military action in
Syria would destabilize the region, after Ankara threatened
to launch a new offensive on Kurds in the country’s north.
اضافة اعلان
“Any Turkish
military action in the north of Syria would be a destabilizing element in the
region,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told a press conference in Damascus,
according to a simultaneous translation from Farsi to Arabic.
Iran is a major
ally of
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and an important trading partner for
Turkey.
Turkey has launched
successive offensives in Syria since 2016 targeting Kurdish militias as well as
Daesh terrorists and forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier this year he wanted to encourage 1 million
Syrian refugees to return to their country by building them housing and
infrastructure in their homeland.
In recent weeks,
Erdogan has said he plans to launch a military offensive against Kurdish
fighters in Syria Ankara regards as “terrorists”.
These include the
US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (
YPG), which formed a crucial part
of an international coalition against Daesh
“Turkish claims
seeking to justify their offensive in Syrian territory ... have no relationship
with reality, and violate the provisions of the United Nations charter and
principles of international law,” Assad told Amir-Abdollahian, the Syrian
presidency said on Twitter.
The Iranian
minister’s trip comes five days after he visited Turkey.
He had said earlier
that his visit “was aimed at establishing peace and security in the region
between Syria and Turkey”, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.
“After my visit to
Turkey, ... it is necessary to have consultations with the Syrian authorities,”
IRNA quoted him as saying.
On Monday,
Amir-Abdollahian said he understood the need for a new Turkish military
operation against Kurdish rebels it has been fighting for decades.
“We understand
Turkey’s security concerns very well,” he told a joint news conference in
Ankara with
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
“We understand
that... maybe a special operation might be needed,” he said, adding that
“Turkey’s security concerns must be addressed fully and permanently.”
Tehran is hostile
to Kurdish militants who have carried out attacks in Iran as well as Turkey.
The Syrian
government has repeatedly condemned Turkish threats to mount a new incursion
and called Erdogan’s bid to create a so-called “safe zone” inside Syria, an
attack on the war-torn country’s unity.
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