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Iraq’s PM to Visit Turkey Next Week

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. AFP file photo
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. AFP file photo
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Iraq’s PM to Visit Turkey Next Week

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. AFP file photo
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi. AFP file photo

Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi will travel to Turkey next week to discuss security, water and economic issues, Iraqi government sources said Friday.

Iraqi ambassador to Ankara Hassan Al-Janabi said the visit will take place on December 17, and it involves a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“Kadhimi’s trip will be preceded by Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein’s working visit to Iraq, to set the stage for agreements on security and other political and economic issues,” the diplomat said.

Water, the incursion of Turkish forces and their presence inside Iraqi lands, and the efforts of the two countries to confront the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is active inside Iraqi territories, will top the agenda of the talks.

Ankara maintains a military force in the Bashiqa area, in Nineveh Governorate, in addition to deploying troops in the border region of Iraqi Kurdistan, under the pretext of fighting the PKK.

Repeated Turkish airstrikes in Iraqi territories have caused political tension between the two countries in the past months and years.

The Iraqi Ministry of Water Resources proposed on Friday to hold talks with Turkey early next year to determine Iraq's share of the Tigris and Euphrates waters.

"It is likely that the talks will be held early next year to determine the fixed share of water,” a ministry spokesman, Aoun Diab, told the Iraqi News Agency.

Iraq has complained for years that the Turkish and Iranian authorities are obstructing Iraq's water supply.

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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
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Kurdish Fighters Leave Northern City in Syria as Part of Deal with Central Government

A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)
A first contingent of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters leave Aleppo, headed for SDF-controlled northeastern Syria, in Aleppo, Syria, 04 April 2025. (EPA)

Scores of US-backed Kurdish fighters left two neighborhoods in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo Friday as part of a deal with the central government in Damascus, which is expanding its authority in the country.

The fighters left the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh, which had been under the control of Kurdish fighters in Aleppo over the past decade.

The deal is a boost to an agreement reached last month between Syria’s interim government and the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast. The deal could eventually lead to the merger of the main US-backed force in Syria into the Syrian army.

The withdrawal of fighters from the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came a day after dozens of prisoners from both sides were freed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city.

Syria’s state news agency, SANA, reported that government forces were deployed along the road that SDF fighters will use to move between Aleppo and areas east of the Euphrates River, where the Kurdish-led force controls nearly a quarter of Syria.

Sheikh Maksoud and Achrafieh had been under SDF control since 2015 and remained so even when forces of ousted President Bashar al-Assad captured Aleppo in late 2016. The two neighborhoods remained under SDF control when forces loyal to current interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa captured the city in November, and days later captured the capital, Damascus, removing Assad from power.

After being marginalized for decades under the rule of the Assad family rule, the deal signed last month promises Syria’s Kurds “constitutional rights,” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes. Thousands of Kurds living in Syria who have been deprived of nationality for decades under Assad will be given the right of citizenship, according to the agreement.

Kurds made up 10% of the country’s prewar population of 23 million. Kurdish leaders say they don’t want full autonomy with their own government and parliament. They want decentralization and room to run their day-to day-affairs.