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Syria Says No Dialogue with Türkiye before Ankara Announces Plans to Withdraw Its Troops

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad attends a a joint press conference with Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani in Damascus, Syria, 04 June 2024. (EPA)
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad attends a a joint press conference with Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani in Damascus, Syria, 04 June 2024. (EPA)
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Syria Says No Dialogue with Türkiye before Ankara Announces Plans to Withdraw Its Troops

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad attends a a joint press conference with Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani in Damascus, Syria, 04 June 2024. (EPA)
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad attends a a joint press conference with Iranian acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani in Damascus, Syria, 04 June 2024. (EPA)

Syria’s foreign minister said Tuesday that any dialogue between Syria and Türkiye should only take place after Ankara announces that it will withdraw its troops from all Syrian territories it controls.

Faisal Mekdad made the comments during a joint news conference with Iran’s acting foreign minister, Ali Bagheri Kani, after Türkiye threatened in recent days to act against Kurdish-led authorities in Syria’s northeast as they prepare to hold municipal elections next week.

Türkiye has launched three major cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and controls some territories in the north. Ankara was a main backer of Syrian opposition fighters who have been trying to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power since the conflict began in March 2011.

Attempts at reconciliation between Syria and Türkiye have failed to achieve progress since early 2023 despite meetings in Moscow between the countries' foreign ministers and defense ministers.

“The main condition to any Syrian-Turkish dialogue is for Ankara to announce its readiness to withdraw from our lands that it occupies,” Mekdad said. “We do not negotiate with those who occupy our land.”

Bagheri Kani said Tehran has always supported territorial integrity of all regional countries, particularly Syria. “We have supported and will continue to support Syria in its battle against terrorism,” he said, in reference to Syrian opposition groups that Damascus and Tehran consider terrorist organizations.

Iran and Russia, main backers of Assad who took part in Syria’s conflict that has killed half a million people, have tried to mediate between Türkiye and Syria in the past. Over the years, Syrian government forces have taken control of most parts of Syria with their help.

On Türkiye’s support to Syrian opposition groups in the north, Mekdad said: “It is not permissible for the Turkish occupation of Syrian lands to continue to support terrorist organizations in northern Syria.”

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara won’t hesitate to act against Kurdish-led groups in northern Syria that it accuses of links to outlawed Kurdish militants, if they proceed with plans to hold local elections in the region on June 11.

Pro-government Syrian media outlets said Bagheri Kani met earlier Tuesday at the Iranian embassy in Damascus with leaders of Syria-based Palestinian factions. They gave no further details.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah announced that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, met with Bagheri Kani and discussed the volatile situation in Gaza and along the Lebanon-Israel border. Bagheri Kani was in Lebanon before heading to Syria.

Bagheri Kani told reporters that he was in Syria to discuss “an immediate end to the Zionists’ crimes in (the southern city of) Rafah and delivering urgent, immediate and unconditional aid to the oppressed residents of Gaza.”

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Arab World

Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill Seven

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed during Israeli air and ground operations in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Gaza's civil defense rescue service said on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes in the Palestinian territory had killed seven people overnight, despite the fragile ceasefire in place since October last year.

Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the group, which operates under the authority of the Hamas movement, said an Israeli drone had fired two missiles close to a police post in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.

In addition to the seven dead, he said, several more people were wounded, four of them critically.

The al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza said it had received six bodies and seven wounded, "including four in a critical condition because of direct impacts to the face, torso and other parts of the body".

The nearby al-Awda hospital said it had received one fatality and two wounded.

Reached for comment by AFP, the Israeli military said it was working to verify the information.

Israel and Hamas regularly accuse each other of violating the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10, after two years of war triggered by the Palestinian movement's 2023 cross-border attack.

At least 738 Palestinians have been killed since the truce began, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five soldiers killed since the start of the truce.

Under the restrictions imposed on the media in Gaza and the difficulties of accessing the field -- the international press is still barred by the Israeli authorities from entering.

Arab World

In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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In Gaza, Fiberglass Homes Aim to Offer More ‘Dignity’ for Displaced

Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Boys (C) play with a ball amid tents at a makeshift camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

In southern Gaza, aid workers are meticulously assembling fiberglass homes meant to shelter thousands of Palestinians still displaced six months after a ceasefire started between Israel and Hamas.

Nearly two million people in Gaza are living in makeshift shelters, and the humanitarian situation remains dire, according to aid agencies.

The fiberglass units are designed to offer a modicum of relief -- homes with slightly more comfort than a tent vulnerable to the coastal winds that hit Gaza.

Alessandro Markic, head of the United Nations Development Program office in Gaza, initiated the plan. He said families "are facing extremely difficult conditions".

Roughly 4,000 units are planned in the al-Mohararat area, west of Khan Younis.

Workers assemble walls, install small windows, and lay roofs for families who try to settle in with rugs and cushions inside.

"These are very basic and temporary solutions, while we continue to plan for recovery and reconstruction," Markic said. The homes, he added, "provide more dignity, privacy, and protection during the winter."

Some Gazans were visibly relieved to have an alternative to the tents where most displaced people continue to live.

Nasma Sharab has moved into one unit with her sons, and affirmed it was "better" than a tent.

The fiberglass homes "don't constantly blow away in the wind," she said.

But, she added, "it's a temporary solution while we wait for reconstruction to begin and for people to be able to go back to their homes."

Among those who remain in a tent is Ali Abu Nahl, in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, after being displaced to the center and south of the territory with his children and grandchildren.

His house was destroyed during the devastating conflict that erupted with the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023.

"It's been half a year since the bombing stopped, but in Gaza, the war doesn't end when the strikes stop," he said.

Arab World

Pressure Mounts on Hamas as It Weighs Response on Disarmament

Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Pressure Mounts on Hamas as It Weighs Response on Disarmament

Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)
Family members and friends mourn outside the Nasser Hospital, the day after a Palestinian was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 10, 2026. (AFP)

Diplomatic momentum is building around a Gaza ceasefire, as Hamas and other Palestinian factions prepare their final response to a “Board of Peace” plan on the movement’s disarmament and the second phase of the deal.

Talks were set to begin in Cairo on Friday and Saturday, with more meetings possible, bringing together Palestinian factions, Egyptian officials, and the Board of Peace’s high representative, Nickolay Mladenov.

Mladenov has held several rounds of talks in Egypt with officials and European representatives, following a second meeting last week with a Hamas delegation.

Sources from Hamas and other factions told Asharq Al-Awsat the group will present a unified Palestinian position, outlining its vision and proposed amendments to the plan submitted more than two weeks ago.

The response will stop short of outright acceptance or rejection, the sources said. Instead, Hamas will propose clear amendments and push for deeper negotiations to prevent Israel from using the process as a pretext to resume the war.

The group also aims to convince mediators, the United States, and the Board of Peace to broaden the talks beyond weapons, to include key provisions from both the first and second phases.

In its latest meeting with Mladenov, Hamas stressed that Israel must fully implement the first phase before any move to the second.

A Hamas source said the group would show flexibility with mediators to reach solutions that prevent renewed fighting, accusing the hardline government of Benjamin Netanyahu of seeking a return to war.

Resetting the terms

Hamas and other factions want a new negotiating framework that reflects Palestinian demands, rather than accepting imposed terms without binding commitments on Israel, another source said.

Details of the response remain undisclosed. But earlier discussions suggested handing over a limited number of vehicles mounted with “Dushka” machine guns, which Israel classifies as heavy weapons. At a later stage, factions could retain light arms under a mechanism overseen by mediators as part of a long-term truce.

Factions say they no longer possess what Israel defines as heavy weapons, such as rockets. Their remaining capabilities, they say, are limited to small numbers of anti-armor projectiles, explosive devices, light weapons such as Kalashnikov rifles, and some vehicle-mounted Dushka guns.

Pressure or coordination

Hamas sources acknowledge the group will face significant pressure in the coming talks, but say key mediators in Egypt, Türkiye, and Qatar understand its demands, even as they urge it to scale back proposed amendments.

A senior Hamas delegation has held meetings in Egypt and Türkiye, including with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, both of whom played key roles in the initial ceasefire negotiations.

Hamas said the meetings were part of consultations on Gaza and proposed amendments, denying that it was coming under pressure from Ankara.

The Board of Peace plan calls for full consolidation of all weapons, including light, heavy, tribal, and personal arms. Israel backs the plan. Hamas rejects it in its current form, citing security threats to its leaders and rejecting any link between disarmament and reconstruction of Gaza.

On the Israeli side, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel is awaiting Hamas’s response. If it is negative, the decision would fall to Netanyahu’s government, which may move to enforce disarmament by force.

Israeli sources told the paper all options remain open, but with focus on the northern front with Lebanon, a return to fighting in Gaza in the coming days appears unlikely.