Ankara Denies Deal with Russia over Syria’s Idlib and Afrin

Turkish tanks in the Kilis province close to the Syrian border. (Reuters)
Turkish tanks in the Kilis province close to the Syrian border. (Reuters)
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Ankara Denies Deal with Russia over Syria’s Idlib and Afrin

Turkish tanks in the Kilis province close to the Syrian border. (Reuters)
Turkish tanks in the Kilis province close to the Syrian border. (Reuters)

Ankara denied on Saturday that it had reached a deal with Moscow over the Syrian regions of Afrin and Idlib.

Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Istanbul that there was no deal for Russia to exchange rebel-held Idlib for Afrin.

The operations in each of those two regions are separate from each other, he remarked.

Commenting on the fate of regime leader Bashar Assad, he remarked that he should leave office "at some point" in the future but denied there was any kind of contact between Ankara and Damascus over ending the seven year civil war, reported Agence France Presse.

Ankara has been a prime foe of Assad throughout the conflict but has occasionally softened its rhetoric in the last months as Turkey strengthened cooperation with the regime's main ally Russia.

Kalin said that Assad was not the leader to unite Syria and had lost legitimacy, adding however that there needed to be a "political transition” in the country, leading to a new constitution and elections.

"It is not going to be easy but that's the ultimate goal to reach and at some point Assad will have to go," he added.

"Where exactly, at what point precisely (Assad leaves), is something that will be answered as we go on, obviously," he remarked.

Kalin was speaking after Russia on Tuesday hosted a peace congress on Syria, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressing "satisfaction", according to the Kremlin.

Kalin said the Russian position has been "not so much protecting Assad personally but protecting the state institutions, state apparatus and the Syria regime forces and regime elements".

He noted: "They want to make sure that the state doesn't collapse completely in Syria."

Turkey's position on Assad has been under ever greater scrutiny since Ankara on January 20 began a cross-border operation with Syrian allied rebel forces against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units based in the town of Afrin.

But Kalin denied any contact with Damascus "at any level".

"There is no communication, no relationship, direct (or) indirect. Nothing with the Syrian regime, at any level. I can say that categorically and very clearly," he said.



New Gaza Aid Plans Would Increase Children’s Suffering, UNICEF Says 

Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
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New Gaza Aid Plans Would Increase Children’s Suffering, UNICEF Says 

Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinian boys salvage bread from a makeshift bakery hit in Israeli strikes at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 8, 2025. (AFP)

The United Nations Children's Fund on Friday criticized emerging plans to take over distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza on Thursday floated by both Israel and the United States, saying that they would increase suffering for children and families.

The US State Department earlier floated a solution that would allow delivery of food aid to Gaza was "steps away" and an announcement was coming shortly.

A proposal is circulating among the aid community for a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that would distribute food from four "Secure Distribution Sites", resembling plans announced by Israel earlier this week, which drew criticism that it would effectively worsen displacement among the Gaza population.

"It appears the design of a plan presented by Israel to the humanitarian community will increase ongoing suffering of children and families in the Gaza Strip," said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder.

Elder said his remarks also applied to the new foundation which he understood to be part of the same broad plan.

The aid community has already rejected any plans that would give occupying power Israel a role in distributing aid in Gaza.

However, the Foundation document said the sites would be "neutral" and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Friday that Israel would not be involved in handing out aid.

Still, Elder said that the use of such hubs, which the foundation says will initially serve 300,000 people each, would create risks for children and families as they go to retrieve aid and would drive further displacement.

"The use of humanitarian aid as a bait to force displacement, especially from the north to the south will create this impossible choice: a choice between displacement and death," said Elder, who has been on several missions to Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began 19 months ago.

"It appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic."

He called instead for Israel to lift a more than two-month-long blockade on aid entries into the enclave, which is stoking widespread hunger and raising concerns about a spike in malnutrition-related deaths.

"There is a simple alternative, lift the blockade, let humanitarian aid in to save lives," he said.