Turkey ‘warned Russia, Iran not to intervene in Syria rebel push’

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan says if Moscow and Tehran had come to Bashar al-Assad’s aid, the rebels could still have won but their victory would have been ‘bloodier’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan. Picture: Getty Images.

Turkey has said it urged Russia and Iran not to intervene militarily to support Bashar al-Assad’s forces as Islamist-led rebels mounted their lightning advance on Damascus that ended with the Syrian strongman’s ouster last weekend.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Turkey’s NTV that if Moscow and Tehran – both key Assad allies since the start of the civil war in 2011 – had come to the Syrian president’s aid, the rebels could still have won but the outcome could have been far more violent.

“The most important thing was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure that they didn’t enter the equation militarily. We had meetings with (them) and they understood,” Mr Fidan told the broadcaster.

“If Assad had received support, the opposition could have achieved victory with their determination, but it would have taken a long time and could have been bloody,” he said.

Turkey’s aim was to “hold focused talks with the two important power players to ensure minimum loss of life,” Mr Fidan added

When the Islamist-led HTS rebel alliance first began its offensive on November 27, Moscow and Tehran initially offered Assad military support to hold off the rebels.

But the scale of the collapse of Assad’s forces took them by surprise. And it came at a time when both nations were caught up with problems of their own: Russia mired in the war with Ukraine, and Iran’s proxies including Lebanon’s Hezbollah taking a major battering from Israel.

They quickly realised the game was up, that Assad “was no longer someone to invest in” and “there was no point anymore”, the Turkish minister added.

Turkey expressed support for the rebels with experts saying it gave the green light for the offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), without being directly involved.

Many nations, especially in the region, have expressed concern about HTS, which is rooted in Al-Qaeda’s former Syria branch and proscribed by many Western governments as a terror organisation.

But Fidan said it was “perfectly normal” to have such concerns about HTS, which would “need to be resolved”.

“No one knows them as well as we do, we want a Syria without terrorism, not posing a threat to the countries in the region,” he said.

Since 2016, Turkey has held considerable sway over northwestern Syria, maintaining a working relationship with HTS which ran most of the Idlib area, which was Syria’s last bastion of opposition.

With open lines of communication with HTS, Turkey was relaying such concerns directly to them, he said.

“We reflect our friends’ concerns to them and ensure they take steps. They have made many announcements and people see they are on the right track,” he said.

The message that Ankara was sending to the new administration in Damascus was: “This is what Turkey – which has stood by you for years – expects. And this is what the world expects,” he said.

He spoke as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited both Ankara and Baghdad on a regional tour focused on the new Syria.

In Baghdad, Mr Blinken promised to work with Iraq to ensure no resurgence of the Islamic State group.

He told Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani of “our commitment to working with Iraq on security and always working for Iraq’s sovereignty, to make sure that that is strengthened and preserved”.

“I think this is a moment as well for Iraq to reinforce its own sovereignty as well as its stability, security and success going forward,” Mr Blinken said.

He added that “no one knows the importance” more than Iraq of stability in Syria and avoiding the resurgence of Islamic State.

“We are determined to make sure that Daesh cannot re-emerge,” Mr Blinken said. “The United States (and) Iraq, together had tremendous success in taking away the territorial caliphate that Daesh had created years ago.”

Islamic State overran large swathes of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, proclaiming its “caliphate” and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces backed by a US-led military coalition, and in 2019 lost the last territory it held in Syria to US-backed Kurdish forces.

Mr Sudani, in his meeting with Blinken, “underscored the necessity of ensuring the representation of all components of the Syrian people in managing the country to bolster its stability,” his office said.

He stressed Iraq “expects tangible actions, not just words” from Syria’s transitional authorities, and “emphasised the importance of preventing any aggression on Syrian territories by any party”.

AFP