Region

ISTANBUL — Turkey said Tuesday it was ready for an offensive into northern Syria, while President Donald Trump insisted the United States had not abandoned its Kurdish allies who would be targeted in the assault. 

Trump has blown hot and cold since a surprise announcement on Sunday that Washington was pulling back 50 to 100 "special operators" from Syria's northern frontier. 

The troops had served as a buffer preventing a long-planned attack by the Turkish military against Kurdish forces, who were crucial in the years-long campaign to defeat the Daesh terror group but are viewed as "terrorists" by Ankara.

After appearing to give a green light to the Turkish invasion on Sunday, Trump later threatened to "obliterate" Turkey's economy if it went too far. 

"Any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency," he tweeted. 

But he also gave a warm account of Turkey in other tweets and announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would visit Washington on November 13.

"So many people conveniently forget that Turkey is a big trading partner of the United States," he said.

Ankara had already brushed aside Trump’s warnings, with Vice-President Fuat Oktay saying: “Turkey is not a country that will act according to threats.”

Turkey has always pushed hard against US support for Kurdish forces in Syria due to their links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party which has fought a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

Its defence ministry tweeted that preparations for an offensive in northern Syria have been “completed”.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government has welcomed the upheaval, spying an opportunity to bring the country’s Kurds back into its fold. 

The Kurds have been “tossed aside” by Washington, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad told the pro-government Al Watan newspaper.

Trump rejected that interpretation, tweeting: “We may be in the process of leaving Syria, but in no way have we Abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters.”

‘Deeply concerned’ 

Britain said it was “deeply concerned” by Turkey’s plans to attack Kurdish fighters, who lead the Syrian Democratic Forces and say they lost some 11,000 fighters as the main frontline force against Daesh.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said London had been “consistently clear with Turkey that unilateral military action must be avoided as it would destabilise the region”.

Iran, a key backer of the Syrian government, also opposed a Turkish incursion, with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urging “respect for Syria’s territorial integrity” in a call to Ankara.

Turkey says it wants to establish a “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border where it could send back some of the 3.6 million refugees from the eight-year civil war.

Erdogan said on Monday that the operation into Syria could “come any night without warning”.

Kurds argue that Ankara’s goal is to dilute their dominance in the region with an influx of mostly Sunni Arab refugees now living in Turkey.

Trump has faced a barrage of criticism, including from close allies in Washington, for appearing to leave the Kurds to their fate. 

Many officials were caught off-guard, with Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman warning Turkey of destabilising blowback to the region if it invades.

“The Department of Defence made clear to Turkey — as did the president — that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria,” he said on Monday. 

A Turkish attack also raises the specter of what will happen to some 10,000 Daesh fighters currently being held in Kurdish detention centres. 

Around 2,000 of them are Daesh “foreign fighters”, and Trump assailed US allies in Europe for not taking back their nationals.

If they escape or are released, they could reconstitute Daesh, less than one year after it was defeated and its “caliphate” disintegrated.

Trump declared that it would be the responsibility of Turkey and other countries to deal with the Daesh prisoners.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament held its first session Tuesday after a week of anti-government protests that left dozens dead and sparked a political crisis the country's president said required a "national dialogue".

Security restrictions were lifted around Baghdad's Green Zone, where government offices and embassies are based.

Morning traffic was at normal levels and an internet blackout in place for most of the past week appeared to ease.

More than 200 parliamentarians arrived for an extraordinary session called by speaker Mohammed Al Halbusi, defying expectations that they would not meet quorum.

MPs hosted several ministers to discuss the demonstrations, which erupted one week ago in Baghdad before spreading to the country's Shiite-dominated south.

The session followed a failed attempt on Saturday, when parliament's largest bloc, including the 54 MPs led by populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, boycotted the session.

Sadr threw his weight behind the protests last week and called on Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi to resign, but the embattled premier has held on and suggested his own string of reforms.

On Tuesday, Abdel Mahdi held marathon meetings with Halbusi, the Cabinet, tribal chiefs, and the country’s top justice over the demonstrations, with his office’s statements insisting life had “returned to normal” after a week of bloody demonstrations.

But it remains to be seen whether Halbusi and Abdel Mahdi’s suggestions would be enough to appease protesters, who have repeatedly said they had “nothing left to lose” and scoffed at overtures by political and religious figures.

‘Enemies of the people’ 

The demonstrations began with demands for an end to rampant corruption and chronic unemployment but then escalated with calls for a complete overhaul of the political system.

They were unprecedented because of their apparent spontaneity and independence in a deeply politicised society, but have also been exceptionally deadly — with more than 100 people killed and 6,000 wounded in one week.

On Monday night, President Barham Saleh made a televised appeal for “sons of the same country” to put an end to the “discord”.

Saleh said those responsible for the violence were “enemies of the people” and proposed a cabinet reshuffle, more oversight to stamp out corruption, and a “national, all-encompassing and frank dialogue... without foreign interference”.

When the protest movement first erupted, young, mostly male Iraqis gathered in the emblematic Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

But security forces began closing off roads and the rallies were eventually confined to the densely populated, chaotic district of Sadr City — Sadr’s stronghold.

On Sunday night, rallies there left at least 13 people dead after they escalated into clashes with troops. The following evening, at least one riot police member was killed, the interior ministry said. 

In videos distributed on social media, protesters could be seen ducking into streets littered with burning tyres as volleys of gunfire and suspected heavy weapons were heard.

For the first time, the army acknowledged using “excessive force” in Sunday’s incident and said it would hold commanding officers accountable.

Amnesty International welcomed the admission as “a first step that must be translated on the ground, to rein in the behaviour of security forces and the army”.

“The next step is accountability,” it said.

‘Conspiracy theories’ 

The particularly chaotic scenes in Sadr City followed several days of witnesses reporting security forces unleashing tear gas and live rounds to disperse protests while authorities said “unidentified snipers” shot at both protesters and police.

More footage is expected to emerge online once Internet services fully return across Iraq, where authorities have restricted access since Wednesday night.

The tentative calm returning to Baghdad comes a few weeks ahead of Arbaeen, the massive pilgrimage that sees millions of Shiite Muslims walk to the holy city of Karbala, south of Baghdad.

Nearly two million came last year from neighbouring Iran, which has urged citizens to delay their travel into Iraq in light of the protest violence.

Its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Monday “enemies” were trying to drive a wedge between Tehran and Baghdad, in an apparent allusion to the protests.

The sentiment was echoed hours later by the powerful Hashed Al Shaabi paramilitary force, which warned that those who sought to “defame Iraq will be punished”.

In an apparent response, British ambassador Jon Wilks said on Tuesday there was “no need for conspiracy theories”.

“Iraq must protect Iraqis. Using its own national security forces,” he wrote on Twitter.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's military admitted for the first time Monday it used "excessive force" in deadly protests, a move Amnesty International said must lead to accountability for more than 100 killed over the last week. 

Demonstrations across Baghdad and the south have spiralled into violence over the last week, with witnesses reporting security forces using water cannons, tear gas and live rounds and authorities saying "unidentified snipers" have shot at protesters and police.

On Sunday evening, a mass protest in Sadr City in east Baghdad led to clashes that medics and security forces said left 13 people dead.

In videos distributed on social media, protesters could be seen ducking into streets littered with burning tyres as a volley of gunfire and suspected heavy weapons were heard. 

"Excessive force outside the rules of engagement was used and we have begun to hold accountable those commanding officers who carried out these wrong acts," the military said.

It said Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi had ordered those forces to be replaced with federal police units and the intelligence services to open an investigation into the incident.

It was the first time since protests broke out that security forces acknowledged using disproportionate measures, a move cautiously welcomed by Amnesty International on Monday. 

"The security forces' admission of using excessive force is a first step that must be translated on the ground, to rein in the behaviour of security forces and the army," it said in Arabic.

"The next step is accountability."

More than 100 people have been killed and 6,000 wounded across the country since protests broke out Tuesday, according to the interior ministry. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday urged for Iraqi health workers to be allowed to treat the wounded safely. 

"The alternative is unthinkable for a population already weary and in need," said Katharina Ritz, ICRC's head of delegation in Iraq.

By Monday evening, the military had been pulled out of Sadr City and a few police officers could be seen on the edges of the neighbourhood, an AFP photographer there said, with no protests there or in other typical gathering spots. 

Sadr City, a densely populated, impoverished part of the capital, is a bastion of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr who has thrown his weight behind the protests by calling on Abdel Mahdi’s government to resign.

But the embattled premier instead announced a series of reforms to create jobs, boost social welfare and oust corrupt officials.

He has accused “saboteurs” of infiltrating the protests, a claim echoed by the Hashed Al Shaabi, a powerful network of mostly-Shiite, pro-Iran paramilitary units opposed to the US.

“We know who stands behind these protests. The plan to bring down the regime has failed,” its chief Faleh Al Fayyadh told journalists in Baghdad. 

He said his forces would support actions against corrupt institutions but not “the fall of the regime”, a chant which has featured more prominently in the protests in recent days.

“Those who wanted to defame Iraq will be punished,” Fayyadh said, adding that his forces were “ready for any government order”.

His words echoed a statement earlier on Monday by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who accused “enemies” of trying to drive a wedge between Tehran and Baghdad. 

“Enemies seek to sow discord but they’ve failed & their conspiracy won’t be effective,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on his office’s Twitter account.

Iran has urged its citizens planning to take part in a major Shiite pilgrimage in Iraq to delay their travel into the country over the violence.

Baghdad has close but complicated ties with Tehran, which enjoys significant influence among its Shiite political groups, but is also an ally of Washington. 

On Monday, Abdel Mahdi said he discussed the recent events and reform plans in a phone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, without providing further details.

And he said he met on Monday with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

DUBAI — Yemen's internationally recognised government and southern separatists are holding indirect negotiations and are close to reaching a power-sharing agreement, sources from both sides said on Monday.

The two camps have been for weeks in indirect and discreet talks in Saudi Arabia's western city of Jeddah with the kingdom's mediation, an official from the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) told AFP. 

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there has been "a lot of progress" in the past couple of days.

A Yemeni government source confirmed that talks between the two parties have been ongoing. 

In August, fighting between the two camps — both of which are battling Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels — opened a new front in the country’s complex war.

But sources from both sides told AFP on Monday that they are close to reaching a power-sharing deal. 

“The agreement would stipulate that the government return to Aden and that the Security Belt Forces be responsible for security under the supervision of the Saudis,” a source informed about the negotiations told AFP. 

The source also said that the deal would include “the participation of the STC in government”.

The Security Belt Forces — dominated by the secessionist STC — in August took control of the southern city of Aden, which has served as the government’s base since it was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthi rebels in 2014. 

The clashes between separatists and government forces — who for years fought on the same side against the Houthis — have raised fears that the country could break apart entirely.

The coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 as the Houthi rebels closed in on Aden prompting Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to seek exile in Saudi Arabia.

The conflict has since killed tens of thousands of people — most of them civilians — and driven millions more to the brink of famine in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

QAMISHLI, Syria — US forces in Syria started pulling back on Monday from Turkish border areas, opening the way for Ankara's threatened military invasion and heightening fears of an extremist resurgence.

The withdrawal from key positions along Syria's northern border came after the White House said it would step aside to allow for a Turkish operation President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned could come at any moment.

The move marks a major shift in US policy, and effectively abandons the Kurds, Washington's main ally in Syria during the years-long battle against the Daesh terror group.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurdish-led militia that controls much of northeastern Syria, said early on Monday in a statement that "US forces withdrew from the border areas with Turkey".

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor confirmed that US forces had pulled back from key positions in Ras Al Ain and Tal Abyad.

A US base in Ras Al Ain was empty of personnel on Monday, said an AFP photographer, who had seen troops there the night before. 

Turkey has sent reinforcements to the border in recent weeks, and Erdogan said Monday in televised remarks the long-threatened offensive could "come any night without warning".

His comments came after Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter that Turkey was “determined to ensure our country’s existence and security by clearing terrorists from this region”. 

He was referring to the SDF, which has ties to Kurdish militants inside Turkey and which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation.

Fearing yet another chapter of bloodshed and mass displacement in the Syrian conflict, the United Nations said it was “preparing for the worst”.

The European Union warned that civilians would once again bear the brunt of a military assault.

‘America’s honour’ 

In its statement, the White House made clear it would stand aside when its NATO ally Turkey moves in.

Trump on Monday said the region would have to “figure the situation out” and that America needed to get out of “ridiculous Endless Wars”.

But US Senator Lindsey Graham called the move “a disaster in the making” and “a stain on America’s honour,” warning of a Senate resolution demanding the White House alter course. 

SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said Washington’s decision “is about to ruin the trust and cooperation between the SDF and US”.

“People here are owed an explanation,” he said on Twitter. 

The SDF, which spearheaded — with backing from the US-led coalition — several of the most significant battles against Daesh over the past five years, also vowed to resist any Turkish attack.

“As the Syrian Democratic Forces, we are determined to defend our land at all costs,” it said in a statement posted on social media.

Ankara says it wants to urgently establish a “safe zone” on the other side of the border where it could send back some of the 3.6 million refugees who fled the eight-year war in Syria to live on Turkish soil.

But the Kurds argue that Turkey’s goal is to weaken the Kurdish presence in the region by modifying the demographics of the area with the return of mostly Sunni Arab refugees.

Ankara’s planned offensive is expected to focus on the border areas of Ras Al Ain and Tal Abyad, which are Arab-dominated towns governed by the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria. 

Kurdish forces have dug trenches and tunnels in the two areas in preparation for a Turkish offensive, according to the observatory.

‘Prepare for war’ 

In Ras Al Ain on Sunday, local armed forces allied with the Kurdish administration stood behind dirt berms, monitoring the frontier. 

They had covered streets in the town with large metal canopies to block the view of Turkish drones, sources there told AFP.

“The prudent should prepare for war,” said Mustefa Bozan, a 79-year-old shopkeeper.

Nearby, Issam Daoud said that local security forces have erected checkpoints at key entrances to the town. 

“The fate of the region will be the same as that of Afrin,” the 38-year-old said, referring to a former Kurdish enclave captured by Turkish troops and Syrian rebels last year. 

The SDF has also warned that a Turkish offensive would reverse the military gains achieved against Daesh and allow for the radical group’s surviving leaders to come out of hiding.

In its statement, it said that Daesh cells would break out detained jihadists from Kurdish prisons and take over camps where their relatives are held.

But Turkey’s presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Monday that Ankara “will also continue to fight against Daesh and will not allow it to return in any shape and form”.

TUNIS — Exit polls showed an established Islamist-inspired party leading that of a jailed business tycoon in Tunisia's legislative polls on Sunday, weeks after a presidential election that reshaped the country's post-Arab Spring political landscape.

Polling stations for the seven-million-strong electorate closed at 6:00pm (1700 GMT). Ennahdha and Qalb Tounes (Heart of Tunisia) — led by detained business tycoon Nabil Karoui — were both swift to claim victory.

Two exit polls after the close of voting showed Ennahdha in the lead with 40 seats out of 217, while Qalb Tounes was in second, with one pollster giving it 35 seats, and another 33.

However, preliminary official results are not expected until Wednesday. 

In the runup to the legislative vote, Ennahdha and Qalb Tounes officially ruled out forming an alliance, and with a plethora of parties and movements running, the stage could be set for complex and rowdy negotiations — or even a second poll. 

The legislative vote comes after candidates aligned with traditional political parties were eclipsed by independent runners during the first round of presidential polls last month.

"According to preliminary results collected at voting stations, Qalb Tounes has come first", party spokesman Hatem Mliki said.

But its main rival Ennahdha also claimed that it had "according to preliminary results... won the elections".

In the first round of the presidential vote Karoui, held since August on money-laundering charges, came second behind Kais Saied, an independent law professor.

Courts rejected several appeals for his release during campaigning.

Low turnout 

The sidelining of the ruling political class in the first presidential round on September 15 was rooted in frustration over a stagnant economy, high unemployment, failing public services and rising prices.

The ink-stained fingers once proudly displayed after the 2011 revolution were briskly wiped clean as Tunisians fed up with the status quo cast ballots for lawmakers for the third time since the 2010-2011 uprising.

"I came to vote out of duty, nothing more," said Abdeljlil Frihi, in his 70s, scrubbing his finger and railing against a political class that "sank" the country.

Mohamed Daada, 60, said he had "no hope for a positive change" in Tunisia.

"I don't trust anyone or any political party. Life just gets worse in this country."

More than 15,000 candidates on 1,500 lists contested 217 seats in a parliament dominated by Ennahdha in alliance with centrist party Nidaa Tounes, which has been decimated by infighting.

The elections commission, ISIE, said turnout was 41.3 per cent, well down from the 64 per cent achieved in 2014.

The first round of the presidential poll achieved a turnout of 49 per cent.

The presidential race may have overshadowed the legislative contest, but parliament is responsible for tackling the main challenges facing Tunisian society and observers were concerned about voter apathy.

"People no longer trust the old parties, and they don't know the new ones, so they're not motivated in this election," said Ali Rekiki, who works with Tunisian electoral monitor Mourakiboun.

A strong showing for Qalb Tounes could bolster Karoui's presidential campaign and supporters say it might make a case for him to take over as prime minister if he loses to Saied.

The socially conservative professor has not come out in support of any party.

Complex talks, 

or new vote? 

With the electorate tired of political manoeuvring and the failure to improve living conditions since the ouster of late longtime autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, new movements have been vying for votes — among them Qalb Tounes.

The party that emerges as the largest will have to negotiate with other factions in order to secure the support of a minimum of 109 deputies, in order to secure a parliamentary majority. 

"Negotiations will probably take two weeks," said political analyst Youssef Cherif.

But he also pointed to the risk of a new vote in the event that parties are unable to agree a viable alliance. 

Islamist populist lawyer Seifeddine Makhlouf's Karama party secured 17 or 18 seats in Sunday's polls, according to exit polls.

Parliament will have two months to agree on the formation of a new government in a country hailed as the Arab Spring's sole democratic success story but straining to meet the revolution's other demands of "work and dignity".

While it has succeeded in curbing extremist attacks that rocked the key tourist sector in 2015, Tunisia's economy remains hampered by austere International Monetary Fund-backed reforms.