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Syrian FM: No Normal Ties with Türkiye without End to Occupation 

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)
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Syrian FM: No Normal Ties with Türkiye without End to Occupation 

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad speaks during a joint news conference with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian in Damascus, Syria January 14, 2023. (Reuters)

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said on Saturday that Türkiye would have to end its military presence in his country to achieve a full rapprochement. 

"We cannot talk about resuming normal ties with Türkiye without removing the occupation," he said after meeting his Iranian counterpart in Damascus. 

Türkiye has been a major backer of the political and armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the 12-year conflict in Syria, and has sent its own troops into swathes of the country's north. 

Russia, a key ally of Assad, is supporting a rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara, hosting talks between their defense ministers last month and aiming for meetings between the foreign ministers and eventually presidents. 

Mikdad said on Saturday "a meeting between Assad and the Turkish leadership depends on removing the reasons for the dispute," without providing more details or mentioning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by name. 

Mekdad was speaking after meeting in Damascus with Hossein Amirabdollahian, the foreign minister of Assad’s other main ally, Iran. 

Amirabdollahian, who also met Assad on Saturday, said on Friday that Iran was "happy with the dialogue taking place between Syria and Türkiye". 

Assad said on Friday the results should be based on the principle of ending the occupation and support for terrorism, a term that Syrian authorities use to refer to all opposition armed groups. 

A source with close knowledge of the negotiations said Syria wanted Türkiye to pull its troops from swathes of the north and to halt support to three main opposition factions. 

The source said Syria was keen to see progress on those demands through follow-up committees before agreeing to a foreign ministers' meeting. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday he could meet Mikdad early in February, rejecting reports the two could meet next week. 

Syria has made no official comment on the timing of any such meeting, which would mark the highest-level talks between Ankara and Damascus since the Syrian war began in 2011. 

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RSF Attack a City under Military Control in Central Sudan, Opening a New Front

Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, secure the area where Dagalo attends a military-backed tribe's rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan, on June 22, 2019. (AP)
Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, secure the area where Dagalo attends a military-backed tribe's rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan, on June 22, 2019. (AP)
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RSF Attack a City under Military Control in Central Sudan, Opening a New Front

Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, secure the area where Dagalo attends a military-backed tribe's rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan, on June 22, 2019. (AP)
Sudanese soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces unit, led by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the deputy head of the military council, secure the area where Dagalo attends a military-backed tribe's rally, in the East Nile province, Sudan, on June 22, 2019. (AP)

Fighting continued to rage between Sudan’s military and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in a city in a central province, officials said Sunday, opening yet another front in a fourteen-month war that has pushed the African country to the brink of famine.

The RSF began its offensive on the Sennar province earlier this week, attacking the village of Jebal Moya before moving to the city of Singa, the provincial capital, authorities said, where fresh battles have erupted.

On Saturday, the group claimed in a statement it had seized the military’s main facility, the 17th Infantry Division Headquarters in Singa. Local media also reported the RSF managed to breach the military’s defense.

However, Brig. Nabil Abdalla, a spokesperson for the Sudanese armed forces, said the military regained control of the facility, and that fighting was still underway Sunday morning.

Neither claim could be independently verified.

According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, at least 327 households had to flee from Jebal Moya and Singa to safer areas.

“The situation remains tense and unpredictable,” it said in a statement.

The latest fighting in Sennar comes while almost all eyes are on al-Fasher, a major city in the sprawling region of Darfur that the RSF has besieged for months in an attempt to seize it from the military. Al-Fasher is the military's last stronghold in Darfur.

Sudan’s war began in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The devastating conflict has killed more than 14,000 people and wounded 33,000 others, according to the United Nations, but rights activists say the toll could be much higher.

It created the world’s largest displacement crisis with over 11 million people forced to flee their homes. International experts warned Thursday that that 755,000 people are facing famine in the coming months, and that 8.5 million people are facing extreme food shortages.

The conflict has been marked by widespread reports of rampant sexual violence and other atrocities — especially in Darfur, the site of a genocide in the early 2000s. Rights groups say the atrocities amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.