Turkey for coordinated actions in Syria to avoid conflicts

Turkey wants to coordinate its actions in Syria with Russia and the United States to avoid any confrontation in the area, Ibrahim Kalin, the aide of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told reporters Saturday on the sidelines of the Doha Forum.

"We are part of the international anti-Daesh coalition, we support the fight against them, so we want to coordinate our efforts, our military will be in close contact with the Americans, with the Russians and other coalition partners in Syria to obviously avoid any kind of confrontation. We have the conflict [prevention] mechanism in place that will be implemented," Kalin said.

Turkey will take all measures to eliminate the terrorist threat on its border, he added.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Russia, along with Turkey and Iran, is one of the guarantor states of the Syrian ceasefire. Moscow has also been assisting Damascus by providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the crisis-torn country.

The US-led coalition of more than 70 members is conducting military operations against the terror group in Syria and Iraq. The coalition's strikes in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with Iraqi officials, but those in Syria are not authorized by the government of President Bashar Assad or the United Nations Security Council.

ePaper - Nawaiwaqt