Turkish foreign minister says Kurdish YPG seeking to divide Syria

“If you look at the text of the agreement, it does not specifically mention Turkey or Saudi Arabia, although I suppose you could infer them for mention of the ‘U.S.-led coalition, ‘ which of course they are not really members”.

“The PYD and the YPG need to be out of the scope of the cease-fire just like Daesh is” Erdoan said during a speech to village headmen inAnkaraon Feb. 24 using an Arabic acronym for ISIL.

Syria’s government said it would accept a halt to “combat operations” and would coordinate with Russian Federation to decide what other groups – along with ISIL and al-Nusra Front – should be excluded from the plan.

The High Negotiations Committee (HNC) – the leading Syrian opposition group – gave its conditional acceptance to the deal late Monday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group, says the army and pro-government Shiite militias were backed by Russian airstrikes in the push on Khanaser.

The truce would include Syrian government and opposition forces but not the Islamic State group or the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front.

“It will only succeed if there is a major change of behaviour by the Syrian regime and its backers”, he said yesterday.

Konashenkov said in a statement that the center has been created in line with a U.S.-Russian agreement on a cease-fire set to take effect Saturday. “Turkey, which has found fault with Brussels, Iran, Russia and now with the United States and has exacerbated the Kurdish problem, has turned into an embittered lone state”, the military expert said. “Daesh” is an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

De Mistura spoke to reporters Thursday in Geneva.

Kurtulmus said Turkey will continue “if necessary” to hit back at incoming fire from Syria even after the truce comes into force on February 27.

If it falls, tens of thousands of Syrians seeking refuge there could flee north to the closed frontier, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis that aid workers have described as the worst they have witnessed during five years of war.

A source within the intelligence department of the gendarmerie forces deployed in the southeastern Sanliurfa province told Anadolu Agency that the suspects – Mesut C. (29) and Abdurrahman P. (23) – were arrested by local security forces while trying to cross from the Syrian border town of Kobani to the district of Mursitpinar in Sanliurfa.

The Islamic State captured the northern town of Khanaser, cutting supply lines for government forces between Aleppo and central and western Syria. “Now all the efforts, contrary to Ankara’s hysteria, should be focused on implementing the ceasefire regime”, the expert said.

The victory is key for Syria’s military access to the provincial capital, Aleppo city. If this is true, then I’d like to remind people what outcome the Ottoman Empire caused for European countries.

According to United Nations figures released several months ago, more than 250,000 people have been killed since the Syrian war began in 2011.