Erdogan Says Kurdish SDF ‘Stalling’ Despite Integration Deal with Damascus 

28 May 2025, Azerbaijan, Lachin: Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during Lachin's trilateral summit of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Pakistani leaders. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)
28 May 2025, Azerbaijan, Lachin: Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during Lachin's trilateral summit of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Pakistani leaders. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)
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Erdogan Says Kurdish SDF ‘Stalling’ Despite Integration Deal with Damascus 

28 May 2025, Azerbaijan, Lachin: Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during Lachin's trilateral summit of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Pakistani leaders. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)
28 May 2025, Azerbaijan, Lachin: Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during Lachin's trilateral summit of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Pakistani leaders. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Kurdish-dominated and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were using "stalling tactics" despite an agreement with the new Syrian government for the group's integration into Syrian armed forces.

Speaking to reporters on a flight from Azerbaijan, Erdogan repeated Türkiye's position that Syria's unity and territorial integrity must be preserved, saying the SDF-Damascus deal must be implemented in the agreed and planned timeline.

"We had said before we welcomed the agreement. But we see that the Syrian Democratic Forces are still continuing their stalling tactics. They must stop this," he was cited as saying by his office on Thursday.



Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
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Olmert: ‘Humanitarian City’ in Rafah Would Be Concentration Camp for Palestinians

Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Former Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert looks on during an interview with AFP (Agence France-Presse) in Paris on June 9, 2025. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)

Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert said that the “humanitarian city” that Israel’s defense minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert told the daily, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.

Israeli Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, has ordered the military to start drawing up operational plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to house initially 600,000 people and eventually the entire Palestinian population, stated the Guardian.

“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” Olmert told he daily, when asked about the plans laid out by Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said.

The “humanitarian city” project is backed by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israel’s refusal to withdraw from the area Katz envisages for the camp is a sticking point in the faltering negotiations for a ceasefire deal, Israeli media have reported.