Turkey will continue to use the airspace across Afrin region. The UN expresses its deep concern

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the US and Ankara may come face-to-face in Manbij, though the possibility is “small”, while earlier President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara will “thwart games” on its borders and start with Manbij.

Turkey will also continue to use the airspace across Afrin region in Northern Syria, where it recently launched Operation ‘Olive Branch’, Bozdag told Reuters in an interview.

At the same time, he said, Ankara is ready for all types of cooperation with Russia and the US if these actions would bring peace to the region.

Erdogan has criticized the administration of former US President Barack Obama for failing to keep its promises to Turkey in Syria.

“There was an operation during Mr. Obama’s administration. That operation aimed to clear terrorists from Manbij. But he failed to keep up to his promise and cheated us,” Erdogan said, adding that Ankara has done its part, but Washington has not.

“They [the Obama administration] promised they would send the terrorists in this area to the East of the Euphrates and leave Manbij,” he stressed.

The United Nations expresses its deep concern over Turkey's ongoing "operation" in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in Northern Syria, which has already claimed lives of civilians and forced about 6,000 of people leave their homes, according to UN Secretary-General Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
 (FNA)
 24/1/18