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Erdogan Tells Sharaa Türkiye Welcomes Lifting of Syria Sanctions

This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
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Erdogan Tells Sharaa Türkiye Welcomes Lifting of Syria Sanctions

This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)
This handout photograph taken and released by the Turkish presidential press service in Istanbul, Türkiye on May 24, 2025, shows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (L) shaking hands during their meeting. (Handout / Turkish Presidential Press Service / AFP)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa during talks in Istanbul on Saturday that Türkiye welcomed the US and EU decisions to lift sanctions on Syria, the Turkish leader's office said.

Sharaa's unscheduled visit came a day after US President Donald Trump's administration issued orders effectively lifting sanctions on Syria after its 14-year civil war. EU foreign ministers also agreed this week to lift sanctions on Syria.

"Our President told Sharaa ... that Türkiye welcomed the lifting of sanctions," his office said in a statement on X.

Ankara has become one of the main foreign allies of Sharaa's government since opposition groups, some of them backed for years by Türkiye, ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year to end his family's five-decade rule.

Earlier, Turkish broadcasters showed Erdogan shaking hands with Sharaa as he emerged from his car at the Dolmabahce Palace on the shores of the Bosphorus Strait in Türkiye’s largest city.

Türkiye’s foreign and defense ministers attended the talks, along with the head of the Turkish MIT intelligence agency, the statement said. Their Syrian counterparts also attended, Syrian state news agency SANA said.

Amid the moves to lift sanctions, the US ambassador to Türkiye Tom Barrack said on Friday he had assumed the role of special envoy to Syria. Reuters reported earlier this week the US planned to appoint him as special envoy.

MIT chief Ibrahim Kalin and Sharaa held talks earlier this week on the Syrian Kurdish YPG militant group laying down its weapons and integrating into Syrian security forces, a Turkish security source said previously.

Türkiye, which still controls swathes of territory in Syria's north after cross-border operations against the YPG, has repeatedly demanded that the YPG disarm and disband.

The YPG spearheads the US-allied SDF forces in Syria, but Türkiye regards it as a terrorist group, affiliated with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought a 40-year insurgency against Türkiye. The PKK announced this month that it had decided to end its armed struggle and disband.

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Arab World

Lebanese President: We are Determined to Hold Parliamentary Elections on Time

President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)
President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)
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Lebanese President: We are Determined to Hold Parliamentary Elections on Time

President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)
President Joseph Aoun between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Speaker Nabih Berri (Lebanese Presidency file photo)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated on Thursday that the country’s parliamentary elections are a constitutional obligation that must be carried out on time.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency quoted Aoun as saying that he, alongside Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, is determined to hold the elections on schedule.

Aoun also emphasized that diplomatic efforts have continued unabated to keep the specter of war at bay, noting that "things are heading in a positive direction".

The agency also cited Berri reaffirming that the elections will take place as planned, with "no delays, no extensions".

The Lebanese parliamentary elections are scheduled for May next year.

Arab World

Israel Calls Countries Condemning New West Bank Settlements ‘Morally Wrong’

Newly constructed buildings are pictured in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on October 24, 2025. (AFP)
Newly constructed buildings are pictured in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on October 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Israel Calls Countries Condemning New West Bank Settlements ‘Morally Wrong’

Newly constructed buildings are pictured in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on October 24, 2025. (AFP)
Newly constructed buildings are pictured in the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on October 24, 2025. (AFP)

Israel reacted furiously on Thursday to a condemnation by 14 countries including France and Britain of its approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling the criticism discriminatory against Jews.

"Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.

"The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalize eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing."

On Sunday, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Fourteen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, then issued a statement urging Israel to reverse its decision, "as well as the expansion of settlements".

Such unilateral actions, they said, "violate international law", and risk undermining a fragile ceasefire in Gaza in force since October 10.

They also reaffirmed their "unwavering commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution... where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace and security".

Israel has occupied the West Bank following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, more than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.

Earlier this month, the United Nations said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, all of which are illegal under international law, had reached its highest level since at least 2017.

Arab World

Iraq Criminalizes Volunteering in Russia-Ukraine War

A photo circulated on social media shows a 24-year-old Iraqi who traveled to Russia to join its armed forces. (AFP)
A photo circulated on social media shows a 24-year-old Iraqi who traveled to Russia to join its armed forces. (AFP)
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Iraq Criminalizes Volunteering in Russia-Ukraine War

A photo circulated on social media shows a 24-year-old Iraqi who traveled to Russia to join its armed forces. (AFP)
A photo circulated on social media shows a 24-year-old Iraqi who traveled to Russia to join its armed forces. (AFP)

The Iraqi judiciary warned on Wednesday that people involved in the war between Russia and Ukraine will face jail as it attempts to crack down on the recruitment of Iraqis joining the conflict.

Faiq Zidan, the head of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, received on Wednesday National Security Advisor Qasim Al-Araji and members of a committee tasked with combating the recruitment of Iraqis.

Zaidan stressed that Iraq criminalizes any Iraqi who joins the armed forces of another nation without the approval of the government.

The judiciary does not have a fixed prison term for anyone accused of the crime, but a court in Najaf last week sentenced to life an Iraqi accused of human trafficking.

He was convicted of belonging to an international criminal gang that recruits Iraqis to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

In November, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered the formation of a committee, headed by Araji, to crack down on the recruitment of Iraqis to fight for the Russian and Ukrainian militaries.

Iraq does not have official figures detailing how many of its citizens have joined the war. Media reports said some 50,000 Iraqis have joined Russian ranks, while unofficial figures put the number at around 5,000, with 3,000 fighting for Russia and 2,000 for Ukraine.

The debate over the recruitment played out over the media between the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors to Iraq.

Ukrainian Ambassador Ivan Dovhanych accused Russia of recruiting Iraqis. Last week, the Ukrainian government sent a letter to the Iraqi government about the recruitment.

It hailed Baghdad’s criminalization of such activity. The letter also revealed that Ukrainian authorities had arrested an Iraqi who was fighting for Russia.

Ukraine has denied that it has recruited Iraqis to join the conflict, but reports indicate otherwise.

Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to Baghdad Elbrus Kutrashev acknowledged that Iraqi fighters had joined the Russian army.

Speaking to the media, he declined to give exact figures, but dismissed claims that they reached 50,000 or even 5,000, saying instead they number no more than a few hundred.

He confirmed that Iraqis had joined the Russian army and “that some four to five had lost their lives”.

He revealed that the Russian embassy in Baghdad had granted visas to Russia to the families of the deceased on humanitarian grounds.

Russian law allows any foreign national residing in Russia and who speaks Russian to join its army with a salary of around 2,500 to 3,000 dollars.

There have been mounting calls in Iraq for the authorities to crack down on human trafficking gangs.

Would-be recruits are often lured by the monthly salary and the possibility of gaining the Russian or Ukrainian nationality.

Critics of the authorities have said Iraqi youths are lured to join foreign wars given the lack of job opportunities in Iraq.