Turkey denies truce with Kurds
Turkey said Wednesday a truce with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria was "out of the question", denying a US claim the two sides had agreed to hold fire a week into Turkey's cross-border offensive.
In an unprecedented operation, Turkey has been deploying tanks and troops in Syria to clear the border area of Islamic State (IS) jihadists and halt the westward advance of a US-backed Kurdish militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group.
The assault on the Kurdish-led forces has sparked international concern and Washington had said on Tuesday that the two sides had agreed to a ceasefire.
Yesterday, Russia added its voice, with the foreign affairs ministry calling on Turkey to avoid strikes in Syria on opposition and ethnic groups fighting Islamic State, including Syrian Kurds.
But Ankara dismissed this claim. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said a truce was "out of the question".
"They will remain our target unless they retreat east of the Euphrates," he said, repeating Turkey's demand that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) retreat to the northeast.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim yesterday said the operation would continue "until terror elements are completely neutralised and threats to our border, soil and citizens are over."
Ankara's bombardments of their positions appeared to have eased, with no reports of any such strikes since Monday.
Meanwhile, Iran, a key backer of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, urged Turkey to quickly wrap up its campaign, calling it a violation of Syrian sovereignty.
In United Nations, Russia on Tuesday questioned the findings of a UN-led investigation that blamed the Syrian regime for chemical attacks, saying they were not conclusive enough to trigger sanctions.
Britain and France called for UN sanctions after the investigative panel found that President Bashar al-Assad's forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks, one in 2014 and one in 2015.
The report also found that Islamic State jihadists had used mustard gas in an attack on the town of Marea in northern Aleppo province in August 2015.
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