Turkey Withdraws from its Largest Military Post In Syria's Hama

Turkish troops on Aleppo international road (File photo: AFP)
Turkish troops on Aleppo international road (File photo: AFP)
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Turkey Withdraws from its Largest Military Post In Syria's Hama

Turkish troops on Aleppo international road (File photo: AFP)
Turkish troops on Aleppo international road (File photo: AFP)

Turkey began withdrawing its troops from the “ninth” military observation point in Morek city, in northwestern Syria, as vehicles and trucks were seen entering the facility and moving soldiers to another location.

The Turkish forces stationed in Morek, which is under the control of the regime forces, began dismantling their equipment, in preparation for their withdrawal from the military point in the northern Hama countryside.

The observation post in Morek is the largest Turkish military point in that area and the forces have been stationed there for nearly two years and four months.

News correspondent of Sputnik agency in Hama confirmed that units of the besieged Turkish point began to dismantle the logistical equipment and the control towers.

Security sources confirmed to the Russian Agency that the Turkish forces had decided to withdraw towards Zawiya Mountain in the southern countryside of Idlib, which indicates that the decision was made in coordination with Russia.

The sources added that the troops are expected to be withdrawn from this point within the next 24 hours, unless there is a sudden development.

Earlier, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar asserted that Turkey will not evacuate its military observation points in the de-escalation zones in Idlib, saying the issue is non-negotiable.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Turkish forces have evaded paying the rent to the owner of the land where the Turkish post is established.

SOHR sources reported that the owner asked al-Sham Corps to pay the rent of his land since the military corps had previously mediated between him and the Turkish forces to establish the observation post there.

However, the Turkish forces and al-Sham Corps have not paid the rent due to the land for nearly two years and three months.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.