ANKARA (Dispatches) –
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has warned militants in Syria against ‘provocations’ amid ongoing protests over normalization talks between Ankara and Damascus.
Akar pledged his country will not take any actions against militants in Syria, and urged them to remain calm and “act with this awareness,” according to the semi-official Anadolu news agency.
The Turkish minister told reporters after a cabinet that the reconciliation efforts between the two neighboring countries were “in good faith” and aimed to improve bilateral times and promote regional peace.
“We hope that (the talks) develop through mutual negotiations and turn into a situation that will contribute to peace and stability for the region,” Akar said.
Turkey works to find a solution to the migration problem, he said, stressing the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland will be voluntarily in line with the decisions of the United Nations.
Syrian, Turkish, and Russian defense ministers, along with intelligence chiefs, met in Moscow on Dec. 28, 2022, marking the first high-level contact between Ankara and Damascus since the start of the foreign-backed war in Syria.
Meanwhile, amid smoldering public resentment over Washington’s ferocious attempts to deploy military forces in the energy-rich regions of Syria and further plunder its natural resources, local people have raised the national flag in front of an illegal military facility housing U.S. occupation forces in the country’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
The Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported that residents of Diban town hoisted the flag over school buildings in the area close to the U.S.-controlled al-Omar oil field on Tuesday to show their strong support for the Damascus government and reject the presence of American occupation forces and Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) there.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that U.S. troops immediately ordered their allied SDF militants to lower the flags, and round up all those behind the move.
The U.S. military has for long stationed its forces and equipment in northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the deployment is aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of Daesh terrorists.
Damascus, however, maintains the deployment is meant to plunder the country’s natural resources. Former U.S. president Donald Trump admitted on several occasions that American forces were in the Arab country for its oil wealth.