Turkey to help Syria with weapon systems, equipment under signed MoU, source says
In a first step toward a comprehensive military cooperation agreement, Turkey and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on military training and consultancy after talks between their foreign, defense ministers, and intelligence chiefs.
The source told reporters in Ankara that the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had not met any of the conditions set out in a March agreement with Damascus on the group's integration into Syria's state apparatus, and added Ankara expected it to urgently respect the deal.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Iran warns war with Israel could resume at any time
A senior Iranian official warned Monday that war with Israel could erupt at any moment, describing the current lull after June's 12-day conflict as only a temporary halt. 'We must be prepared at every moment for confrontation; right now, we are not even in a ceasefire (agreement); we are in a cessation of hostilities,' said First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref. The fighting in June saw Israel bombard Iranian nuclear and military sites, as well as residential areas, killing more than 1,000 people, including senior commanders and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes that killed dozens in Israel. The United States announced a halt in fighting on June 24, two days after it joined the war by bombing Iranian nuclear facilities. But there was no agreement formalizing the ceasefire, only an undeclared pause in hostilities. On Sunday, Yahya Rahim Safavi, a military advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told Iranian media the country was 'preparing plans for the worst-case scenario.' 'We are not in a ceasefire now, we are in a war phase, it could break down at any time, there is no protocol, no regulations, no agreement between us and the Israelis, between us and the Americans,' he said in remarks carried by the Shargh daily. 'A ceasefire means ceasing attacks; that could change at any time,' he added. Since then, Iranian officials have insisted the country is not seeking war but is ready for another confrontation. Western powers accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons through its atomic program, a charge Tehran strongly denies. Following the war, Israel and the United States repeatedly threatened to attack Iran again should Tehran relaunch its nuclear sites and resume its nuclear enrichment program. The United Nations nuclear watchdog has warned that Iran is the only non-nuclear-armed country that enriches uranium to 60 percent – far beyond the 3.67 percent cap set by a landmark international accord reached in 2015. The level is a short step from the 90-percent enrichment required for a nuclear weapon. Last week, Britain, France and Germany, all signatories to the 2015 deal, threatened to reimpose sanctions lifted under the agreement. Iran has warned of serious consequence with some officials in the country hinting at withdrawal of Tehran from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
Gaza slaughter a message to young Palestinians, ex-head of Israel's military intelligence says
LONDON: Israel's former military intelligence chief has claimed that the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza were necessary 'as a message for future generations.' Aharon Haliva can be heard in an audio broadcast by Israel's Channel 12 saying that 50 Palestinians should die for every one Israeli killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli media reported. 'It does not matter now if they are children,' he said. 'There's no choice, they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences.' Nakba refers to the 'catastrophe' of 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and land during the foundation of the Israeli state. Haliva, who resigned last year over intelligence failings surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks, can be heard justifying the devastating death toll in Gaza, which he put at 50,000. The slaughter by Israel's forces reached that figure in March, suggesting his comments are several months old, with the number of people killed now more than 62,000, Gaza health officials said on Monday. Haliva's comments are a rare acknowledgement from a senior Israeli figure of the true scale of the bloodshed in Gaza. Even if Israel's claim earlier this year that it had killed 20,000 militants in the territory was accurate, that would still suggest Haliva accepts the vast majority of victims are civilians. He is even considered a moderate within the Israeli political spectrum that is now dominated by hardline figures like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in senior ministerial positions. The extensive recordings sparked anger among Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups. 'The remarks by former head of military intelligence Aharon Haliva are part of a long line of official statements that expose a deliberate policy of genocide,' B'Tselem said on X. In a statement to Channel 12, Haliva said the recordings came from a 'forum setting.' In the recording, he also discussed the intelligence failings leading up to Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel killing 1,200 people and seizing 250 hostages. He said no one could have imagined what happened on the morning of the attack after years of strategic assumptions that Hamas had been deterred from carrying out such an action. The Shin Bet internal security service also should take the blame along with the military, Haliva said.
Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
US NGO ‘distressed' at suspension of visas for sick Palestinians
LONDON: US-based aid group Heal Palestine has said it is 'distressed' after a far-right influencer convinced Secretary of State Marco Rubio to stop granting visas to Palestinians seeking medical treatment in America. Laura Loomer, a social media personality and self-described 'proud Islamophobe,' told the New York Times that she had spoken to Rubio on Friday about the threat of 'Islamic invaders' using medical visas as a route to the US. Heal Palestine focuses on bringing severely ill children to the US 'on temporary visas for essential medical treatment not available at home,' the group said in a statement. 'After their treatment is complete, the children and any accompanying family members return to the Middle East,' it added. 'This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program.' Another group started by Heal Palestine's founder Steve Sosebee, the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund, gained national attention when it helped bring a 2-year-old Palestinian girl named Rahaf and her mother Israa Saed to St. Louis, Missouri, to be fitted with prosthetic legs. Rahaf's case gained national attention after she was later filmed singing and dancing with American YouTube star Ms Rachel. In a post on X, the State Department said: 'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days.' Rubio told CBS on Sunday that he made the decision after 'numerous congressional offices' raised concerns about the visas, suggesting he knew of various groups 'bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas (which) have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas.' Loomer later suggested on social media that Sosebee had links to Hamas for trying to reopen a hospital in Gaza damaged by Israeli military activity. She was praised on social media by Republican members of Congress Charles Roy from Texas and Randy Fine from Florida for helping to get the medical visas suspended.
