Baghdad, Erbil Achieve Security, Military Understandings

Emir of Kuwait when receiving the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region (KUNA)
Emir of Kuwait when receiving the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region (KUNA)
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Baghdad, Erbil Achieve Security, Military Understandings

Emir of Kuwait when receiving the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region (KUNA)
Emir of Kuwait when receiving the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region (KUNA)

Baghdad and Erbil on Tuesday took a step towards resolving their differences about disputed areas and agreed to coordinate anti-ISIS security operations in them.

The Iraqi Joint Operations Command announced establishing centers for coordination between Baghdad and Erbil to facilitate the staging of joint field operations.

In a statement, the Command said that it hosted a meeting of Iraqi and Kurdish military officials in Baghdad to discuss issues of common security concern along the line separating the Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the disputed areas.

Both sides agreed to “start opening two main joint security coordination centers in Baghdad and Erbil, in addition to forming joint field security and military committees to assess security challenges.”

A delegation from the Ministry of Peshmerga visited Baghdad on Tuesday morning to discuss the establishment of coordination centers between Baghdad and Erbil.

“These efforts come to fill the security gaps separating the Iraqi federal forces and the Peshmerga,” the Command’s spokesman Major General Tahseen al-Khafaji told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Khafaji said that terror groups have been exploiting those gaps.

Addressing the coordination plans for Kirkuk and the Nineveh Plains and the deployment of Peshmerga forces there, Khafaji said: “Coordination began in Diyala province and its success will determine extending coordination to other regions.”

“The issue of the return of Peshmerga forces to Kirkuk was not discussed in this meeting,” he added.

The Secretary-General of the Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry Lieutenant General Jabbar Yawar told Asharq Al-Awsat that the arrangement reached between Baghdad and Erbil stipulates for field committees to meet in Kirkuk, Makhmur, and Nineveh to draft action plans.

Iraqi military expert and retired Brigadier General Hassan Zohair said that coordination between Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga is crucial given that it will deter armed factions and their intentions to exploit security vacuum.



Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.

Türkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria's new government since opposition groups - some of them backed for years by Ankara - ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to end his family's five-decade rule.

It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.

The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.

In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Türkiye and Israel, which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday, are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.

Türkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.

"We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria's defense capacity," Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.

Named to the post by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.

Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.

This can "only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done," he said.

NATO member Türkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel's assault on Gaza.

But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.

Guler described the talks as "technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events" or direct conflict, as well as "a communication and coordination structure".

"Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization," he told Reuters.