Turkey Rejects Responsibility In Deadly Attack On Civilians In Iraq's

Erdogan told reporters on the return flight that the leaders of Russia and Iran shared Turkey’s concern with confronting ‘terrorism.’ While Erdogan, President Vladimir Putin and Iranian leader Ali Khamenei all agreed that the United States should withdraw its troops from north-easy Syria, where they control some oil-fields, both Putin and Khamenei cautioned the Turkish president against an attack on Kurdish forces.

According to a text released by the presidential office, Erdogan continues to insist that an offensive against the main Kurdish group, the PYD (Democratic Union Party), remains possible as long as Turkey’s ‘security’ concerns are not met.

Russia, Turkey, and Iran have worked to coordinate their various interests in Syria through the Astana process, which began in 2019. But with 3.5 million refugees in Syria and a swathe along the border under Kurdish control renamed ‘Rojava,’ Erdogan reiterated Tuesday the option of establishing a ‘safe zone’ inside Syria.

The PYD is linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been active mainly in Turkey since the 1980s, and to Pejak, which operates in Iranian Kurdistan. The three share the ultimate aim of one Kurdistan uniting areas from Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran.

But if Ankara and Tehran share antipathy to Kurdish autonomy, they have taken opposite sides in the Syrian war, with Iran alongside Russia backing President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey aiding mainly Sunni rebels.

The PYD has long played an on-off game with Assad, given a general Kurdish antipathy towards mainly Arab Sunni militants. Erdogan Tuesday accused the PYD of “draining” Syria petrol and selling it to Assad’s government. The PYD has also been aided by the US, ostensibly because of its role fighting the Islamic State group (Isis).

Words ‘not enough’

The trilateral summit in Tehran, which dealt with issues including food supplies arising from the Ukraine crisis, showed Erdogan’s dissatisfaction with what is becoming a settled situation in northern Syria.

“You say you understand Turkey’s concerns and we thank you for this,” Erdogan reportedly told Putin and Raisi. “But words alone are not enough.”

But the summit was also an opportunity for Erdogan to meet Putin who for the first time left the former Soviet space. The Turkish president also made Putin wait nearly one minute in an awkward situation before he appeared and greeted him for a bilateral meeting. Many saw this as a payback for all the occasions when the Kremlin boss has made Erdogan and others wait for him.

Iran’s formal position is that all concerned should respect international borders. Khamenei warned Tuesday that ‘terrorism’ in Syria was not limited to one group and that any Turkish intervention would “benefit terrorists,” destabilize the region, and “impede Syria’s political actions.” Iran may be concerned that a Turkish military operation, and the possible return to Syria of radicalized Sunni refugees, could willingly or otherwise strengthen Islamists opposed to Assad.

“We emphasised that the Syrian government must have control over all areas in the country,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi told a press conference following the summit.

In a joint press conference with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Tehran on Wednesday, Hossein Amir-Abdolahian said that the trilateral meeting in Tehran on Tuesday sought to prevent war and militarism between Syria and Turkey and solve the issues in a political way. 

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin were in Tehran July 19 for talks within the Astana mechanism, focused on the constitutional system, political transition, security and resettlement in Syria.

The Iranian FM said during the meeting with Turkey and Russia, the withdrawal and cleansing of terrorist groups from Syria was emphasized. 

Describing the Astana format summit in Tehran as successful, Mekdad said "Syria is positive about the results of the trilateral summit in Tehran," thanking Iran for preparing "a balanced statement on results of the summit, reaffirming the need to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria."

"It is necessary to deprive Turkey of any pretext to invade the Syrian territory," he said, adding "Ankara's intention to create a border security zone north of Aleppo will lead to an armed conflict. We oppose Turkey's aggressive plans, Ankara's policy of Turkification and support for terrorist groups."

A few hours after their joint presser on Wednesday, Turkish warplanes and artillery attacked areas populated by tourists and villagers in Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan, killing at least 10 people and injuring 25 others.

John Kirby, the White House's chief National Security Council spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday, “I would say three things about this trip. One it shows the degree to which Mr. Putin and Russia are increasingly isolated. Now they have to turn to Iran for help.”

“Two, it shows the degree to which his own defense industrial base is having a hard time keeping up with his unprovoked war in Ukraine,” he went on, highlighting Russia’s troubles regarding precision guided munitions and advanced systems, tanks, even aircraft, particularly with the microelectronics due to the sanctions and export controls. He said the pace of operations in Ukraine has also become a challenge. 

Kirby said the third thing is Russia “has absolutely no intention of stopping the war” and negotiating a settlement with Ukraine, because he wants to buy several hundred UAVs from Iran “to continue to kill Ukrainians.” Putting prefers to turn to Iran rather than just doing the right thing... and ending the war, he added. 

However, Kirby said there is no indication yet that the sale has actually occurred, and that Iran has started training Russian forces to use armed drones, referring to remarks by Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser, who said last week that Tehran planned to supply “several hundred UAVs, including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline.”

He said the US is watching the situation closely, as “the Iranians have a domestic production capability of drones and those drones have lethal capabilities. We've seen that for ourselves in the attacks that they have perpetrated in Iraq and in Syria against our own troops and against our own facilities there.”

In his weekly press conference, foreign ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani was asked about reports that Iran might sell military drones to Russia for its war effort in Ukraine, which he did not deny. Instead, he said, “Iranian and Russian technological cooperation predates developments in Ukraine. Any linkage between our cooperation with Russia with developments in Ukraine is intentionally biased.”

He went on to reiterate that Iran pursues “political solutions for this crisis.”

The US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan recently said that Russian officers visited Iran in June and July to review possible drone purchases.

US Special Envoy for Iran Robert Malley told CNN on Tuesday that any drone shipment from Iran was “of course of concern” and would “bolster Russia’s ability to wreak havoc.” He said it “speaks volumes” that Iran would be in a position where it sold drones to Russia “against its professed position of neutrality in the conflict.” Without giving details, Malley said the US would “use the tools at our disposal” to sanction any supply of weapons to Russia.

Kanaani in his briefing said, however, “Russian and Iranian ties are bilateral, based on the interests of the two countries and do not concern the American government, which cannot comment about the relationship.”

Kanaani also said that he cannot confirm if Ukraine was discussed between presidents Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iran Ebrahim Raisi when they met in Tehran on Tuesday, although “naturally international issues are discussed in multilateral meetings,” he added.

However, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in his meeting with Putin clearly backed Russia’s “initiative” in attacking Ukraine, saying that if Moscow had not taken that step, NATO would have started a war anyway.

“Nato is a dangerous creature,” Khamenei said, “[that] didn’t recognize any limits or borders. If you cannot stand up to them in Ukraine, then a little while later, with the excuse of Crimea, they would have started this war anyway,” Khamenei told Putin.

Speaking about Iran’s talks with the United States to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement known as JCPOA, Kanaani rejected US statements that the latest meeting in Doha in June failed. “As a matter of fact, these were good talks,” he insisted.

He went on to speak with optimism that the diplomatic process is well and alive and the European Union is pursuing discussions with the two sides.

Kanaani reiterated Iran’s position that it needs “serious guarantees” about the US commitment to a new agreement and “verification” that Washington carries out its obligations.

Eleven months of talks in Vienna to revive the JCPOA came to a stop in March as Iran demanded the lifting of all sanctions introduced by the US after former President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018.

Kanaani also repeated remarks by Khamenei and Raisi on Tuesday that the United States should withdraw its troops from Syria.

July 18 marked the anniversary of the bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in Argentina and the 2012 attack on a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, carrying Israeli tourists, both blamed on Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah with direct involvement of high-level Iranian government officials.

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Monday that the two heinous Hezbollah attacks were carried out with Iranian support, describing it as “the single deadliest antisemitic attack in more than half a century.”

“The AMIA bombing underscored Hezbollah’s global ambitions and is a clear example of Iran’s support of international terrorism,” he said, adding “While no one responsible for the attack has been brought to justice, the United States believes all Argentines deserve to have those responsible held accountable for this despicable and cowardly attack.”

He also referred to the 2012 attack on a tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, carrying Israeli tourists, saying Hezbollah murdered five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver in the bomb attack, which also injured 45 Israeli youth traveling on the bus. “While Bulgarian courts convicted two Hizballah operatives in absentia in connection with the bombing, justice has yet to be served.”

“The United States is committed to countering Hezbollah and Iran’s malign influence. The funding, training, weapons, and other support Iran provides Hezbollah support complex and heinous terrorist attacks like these,” Price said. “The callous murder of civilians must not stand.”

He also referred to “national level designations, bans, or other restrictions against Hezbollah,” urging “more countries to take similar measures, which make it harder for the group and its backers in Tehran to threaten peace and security around the globe.”

Echoing Price’s remarks, US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, who is in Argentina on the anniversary of the event, reaffirmed the US support of Argentine Jews in "seeking accountability for the horrific actions of that day."

At the ceremony remembering the victims of the attack, AMIA president, Amos Linetzky, said "How can so much impunity be explained? The AMIA incident is one of the most shameful events in Argentine history" and is "an image that shows us to (have experienced) a humiliating failure."

As Argentina commemorated the 28th anniversary of the bomb attack on Monday, the country’s authorities demanded justice, given that nobody has ever been arrested for the attack.

They also called for greater efforts against "the terrorist threat" to the region, referring to a Venezuelan-Iranian jet that has been impounded in Argentina over links with the Revolutionary Guard.

Iran has denied that a Boeing 747 belongs to Iran’s Mahan Airlines -- sanctioned by the US in 2008 for its links to Tehran’s extraterritorial intelligence and secret ops outfit, the IRGC’s Quds (Qods) Force, but there are reports that at least one of the Iranian crew of the grounded Venezuelan cargo plane was a member of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force.

Among the Iranians on board is Gholamreza Ghasemi, who apparently was the pilot and is a member of the IRGC and a former board member of Fars Air Qeshm accused of transporting weapons for Hezbollah during the civil war in Syria. He is reportedly a relative of current Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, whose assignment by President Ebrahim Raisi triggered condemnation from Argentina given his suspected role in the AMIA bombing.