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Turkey Says Needs No Permission for North Syria Military Operation

Turkish forces in the countryside of Manbij, northern Syria (Archive - Reuters)
Turkish forces in the countryside of Manbij, northern Syria (Archive - Reuters)
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Turkey Says Needs No Permission for North Syria Military Operation

Turkish forces in the countryside of Manbij, northern Syria (Archive - Reuters)
Turkish forces in the countryside of Manbij, northern Syria (Archive - Reuters)

In a Thursday meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish National Security Council discussed ongoing preparations for a possible military operation in northern Syria. This followed Ankara’s announcement that it won’t wait for anyone’s “permission” to protect its southern borders.

“Turkey cannot stand idly in Syria,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday in a televised interview, adding that the operation in the Levantine country could start overnight.

The comments from Cavusoglu came two days after a summit in Tehran at which both Russia and Iran urged against Turkey’s proposed new campaign in northern Syria.

Since May, Erdogan has been talking about Turkey’s plans to launch a new military operation in Syria against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in an effort to link up two areas already under Turkish control in the northern region near the Turkish border.

Erdogan said the aim is to create a 30-km safe zone along the Turkish border with Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, and the EU. The PKK has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years.

Erdogan also stressed that the troops of the US should leave the western side of the Euphrates, and this was the common understanding of the last summit with the Russian and Iranian leaders.

Turkey was in the same opinion because it believed that the US was giving support to the “terrorist organizations there,” he said.

“Since America is harboring terrorist organizations and we are fighting against these terrorist organizations, our work will be easier if it withdraws from there or if it does not harbor these terrorist organizations,” Erdogan added.

“The file of the new military operation in northern Syria will remain on our agenda until our national security concerns are dispelled,” the Turkish president told his National Security Council.

Erdogan pointed out that the YPG, the largest component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), believes in vain that it can deceive the Turkish army by raising the Syrian regime's flag over its positions in northern Syria.

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Deadly Israeli Strike in Lebanon Further Shakes Tenuous Ceasefire

People spend time on a beach during sunset, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, in Tyre, southern Lebanon December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
People spend time on a beach during sunset, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, in Tyre, southern Lebanon December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
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Deadly Israeli Strike in Lebanon Further Shakes Tenuous Ceasefire

People spend time on a beach during sunset, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, in Tyre, southern Lebanon December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
People spend time on a beach during sunset, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, in Tyre, southern Lebanon December 3, 2024. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Israeli forces carried out several new drone and artillery strikes in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a deadly strike that the Health Ministry and state media said killed one person, further shaking a tenuous ceasefire meant to end more than a year of fighting with Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed keep striking “with an iron fist” against perceived Hezbollah violations of the truce. His defense minister warned that if the ceasefire collapses, Israel will target not just Hezbollah but the Lebanese state — an expansion of Israel’s campaign.
Israel also carried out an airstrike in Syria, saying it killed a senior member of Hezbollah responsible for coordinating with Syria’s army on rearming and resupplying the Lebanese militant group. Israel has repeatedly hit Hezbollah targets in Syria, but Tuesday's attack was a rare public acknowledgement. Syrian state media reported that an Israeli drone strike hit a car in a suburb of the capital Damascus, killing one person.

Since the two-month ceasefire in Lebanon began last Wednesday, the US- and French-brokered deal has been rattled by near daily Israeli attacks, although Israel has been vague about the purported Hezbollah violations that prompted them.
On Monday, it was shaken by its biggest test yet. Hezbollah fired two projectiles toward an Israeli-held disputed border zone, its first volley since the ceasefire began, saying it was a “warning” in response to Israel’s strikes. Israel responded with its heaviest barrage of the past week, killing 10 people.
On Tuesday, drone strikes hit four places in southern Lebanon, one of them killing a person in the town of Shebaa, the state-run National News Agency said. The Health Ministry confirmed the death, The Associated Press reported.

Asked about the strike, the Israeli military said its aircraft struck a Hezbollah militant who posed a threat to troops. Shebaa is situated within a region of border villages where the Israeli military has warned Lebanese civilians not to return, with Israeli troops still present.
Israeli forces fired an artillery shell at one location and opened fire with small arms toward a town, the news agency reported.
With Tuesday’s death, Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began have killed at least 15 people.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw its fighters, weapons and infrastructure from a broad swath of the south by the end of the initial 60-day phase, pulling them north of the Litani River. Israeli troops are also to pull back to their side of the border.