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Erdogan Tells Sharaa Türkiye Welcomes Lifting of Syria Sanctions

This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Erdogan Tells Sharaa Türkiye Welcomes Lifting of Syria Sanctions

This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during talks in Istanbul on Saturday that Türkiye welcomed the US and EU decisions to lift sanctions on Syria, the Turkish leader's office said.

Sharaa's unscheduled visit came a day after US President Donald Trump's administration issued orders effectively lifting sanctions on Syria after its 14-year civil war. EU foreign ministers also agreed this week to lift sanctions on Syria.

"Our President told Sharaa ... that Türkiye welcomed the lifting of sanctions," his office said in a statement on X.

Ankara has become one of the main foreign allies of Sharaa's government since opposition groups, some of them backed for years by Türkiye, ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year to end his family's five-decade rule.

Earlier, Turkish broadcasters showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa as he emerged from his car at the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait in Türkiye’s largest city.

Türkiye’s foreign and defense ministers attended the talks, along with the head of the Turkish MIT intelligence agency, the statement said. Their Syrian counterparts also attended, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Amid the moves to lift sanctions, the US ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack said on Friday he had assumed the role of special envoy to Syria. Reuters reported earlier this week the US planned to appoint him as special envoy.

MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin and Sharaa held talks earlier this week on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militant group laying down its weapons and integrating into Syrian security forces, a Turkish security source said previously.

Türkiye, which still controls swathes of territory in Syria's north after cross-border operations against the YPG, has repeatedly demanded that the YPG disarm and disband.

The YPG spearheads the US-allied SDF forces in Syria, but Türkiye regards it as a terrorist group, affiliated with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought a 40-year insurgency against Türkiye. The PKK announced this month that it had decided to end its armed struggle and disband.

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Arab World

Italy Arrests 7 Accused of Raising Millions for Hamas

Palestinian Hamas members secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on December 8, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinian Hamas members secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on December 8, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Italy Arrests 7 Accused of Raising Millions for Hamas

Palestinian Hamas members secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on December 8, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinian Hamas members secure the area as Egyptian workers accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) search for the remains of the last Israeli hostage in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on December 8, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Italian police said Saturday that they have arrested seven people suspected of raising millions of euros for Palestinian group Hamas.

Police also issued international arrests for two others outside the country, said AFP.

Three associations, officially supporting Palestinian civilians but allegedly serving as a front for funding Hamas, are implicated in the investigation, said a police statement.

The nine individuals are accused of having financed approximately seven million euros ($8 million) to "associations based in Gaza, the Palestinian territories, or Israel, owned, controlled, or linked to Hamas."

While the official objective of the three associations was to collect donations "for humanitarian purposes for the Palestinian people," more than 71 percent was earmarked for the direct financing of Hamas" or entities affiliated with the movement, according to police.

Some of the money went to "family members implicated in terrorist attacks," the statement said.

Among those arrested was Mohammad Hannoun, president of the Palestinian Association in Italy, according to media reports.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi posted on X that the operation "lifted the veil on behavior and activities which, pretending to be initiatives in favor of the Palestinian population, concealed support for and participation in terrorist organizations."

Arab World

Türkiye Holds Military Funeral for Libyan Officers Killed in Plane Crash

The Libyan national flag flies at half-mast in Tripoli on December 24, 2025, after the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides died in a plane crash in Türkiye. (AFP)
The Libyan national flag flies at half-mast in Tripoli on December 24, 2025, after the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides died in a plane crash in Türkiye. (AFP)
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Türkiye Holds Military Funeral for Libyan Officers Killed in Plane Crash

The Libyan national flag flies at half-mast in Tripoli on December 24, 2025, after the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides died in a plane crash in Türkiye. (AFP)
The Libyan national flag flies at half-mast in Tripoli on December 24, 2025, after the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides died in a plane crash in Türkiye. (AFP)

Türkiye held a military funeral ceremony Saturday morning for five Libyan officers, including western Libya’s military chief, who died in a plane crash earlier this week.

The private jet with Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, four other military officers and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after taking off from Ankara, Türkiye’s capital, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.

Al-Hadad was the top military commander in western Libya and played a crucial role in the ongoing, UN-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military.

The high-level Libyan delegation was on its way back to Tripoli, Libya’s capital, after holding defense talks in Ankara aimed at boosting military cooperation between the two countries.

Saturday's ceremony was held at 8:00 a.m. local time at the Murted Airfield base, near Ankara, and attended by the Turkish military chief and the defense minister. The five caskets, each wrapped in a Libyan national flag, were then loaded onto a plane to be returned to their home country.

Türkiye’s military chief, Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, was also on the plane headed to Libya, state-run news agency TRT reported.

The bodies recovered from the crash site were kept at the Ankara Forensic Medicine Institute for identification. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc told reporters their DNA was compared to family members who joined a 22-person delegation that arrived from Libya after the crash.

Tunc also said Germany was asked to help examine the jet's black boxes as an impartial third party.

Arab World

Syrian Foreign Ministry: Talks with SDF Have Not Yielded Tangible Results

SDF fighters are seen at a military parade in Qamishli. (Reuters file)
SDF fighters are seen at a military parade in Qamishli. (Reuters file)
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Syrian Foreign Ministry: Talks with SDF Have Not Yielded Tangible Results

SDF fighters are seen at a military parade in Qamishli. (Reuters file)
SDF fighters are seen at a military parade in Qamishli. (Reuters file)

A source from the Syrian Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the talks with the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) over their integration into state institutions “have not yielded tangible results.”

Discussions about merging the northeastern institutions into the state remain “hypothetical statements without execution,” it told Syria’s state news agency SANA.

Repeated assertions over Syria’s unity are being contradicted by the reality on the ground in the northeast, where the Kurds hold sway and where administrative, security and military institutions continue to be run separately from the state, it added.

The situation “consolidates the division” instead of addressing it, it warned.

It noted that despite the SDF’s continued highlighting of its dialogue with the Syrian state, these discussions have not led to tangible results.

It seems that the SDF is using this approach to absorb the political pressure on it, said the source. The truth is that there is little actual will to move from discussion to application of the March 10 agreement.

This raises doubts over the SDF’s commitment to the deal, it stressed.

Talk about rapprochement between the state and SDF remains meaningless if the agreement is not implemented on the ground within a specific timeframe, the source remarked.

Furthermore, the continued deployment of armed formations on the ground that are not affiliated with the Syrian army are evidence that progress is not being made.

The persistence of the situation undermines Syria’s sovereignty and hampers efforts to restore stability, it warned.