President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated....>

TURKEY: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stated that Turkey could launch

another military operation in northern Syria if the situation in the city of

Idlib is not resolved quickly at a meeting of regional heads from his Justice &

Development Party. 

- In late-2019 the withdrawal of US troops from the region saw Turkey launch an

offensive into northern Syria against Kurdish militia that had previously been

fighting the Islamic State and the forces of Syrian President Bashir al-Assad. 

- Comes in the wake of intense bombing of the rebel-held city of Idlib by Assad

and Russian forces. 

- Turkish gov't used last offensive to severely degrade ability of the

primarily-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)/People's Protection Units (YPG)

while also setting up a buffer zone between rebel and Kurdish-held areas and the

Turkish border. 

- Erdogan also ruled out the accepting of US President Donald Trump's 'peace

plan' for the Israeli-Palestine conflict, stating that "This plan aims

annexations of the occupied Palestine territories".