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Turkey needs the support of Gulf countries for regional stability

15 February 2017 17:54 (UTC+04:00)
Turkey needs the support of Gulf countries for regional stability

By Kamila Aliyeva

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes that Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the international coalition forces should work together on fighting ISIS terror in the Middle East.

Turkey needs the support of the Persian Gulf countries and especially of Saudi Arabia to ensure stability in the region, TASS reported with the reference to Erdogan's interview with Al Arabiya.

“When we will liberate the city of Rakka from the "Islamic State", we will be able to convey the region to its people, our Arab brothers,” he said adding that the considerable support from the countries of the Persian Gulf and especially Saudi Arabia is needed to achieve this goal.

Currently, Erdogan is on his days-long tour to the Gulf countries to discuss mutual cooperation and is expected to return to Turkey from Qatar later on Wednesday.

On February 13, Erdogan visited the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was reported that the King and Erdogan discussed “bilateral relations and aspects of cooperation between the two brotherly countries” and key regional issues. Syria was a focus point for the president during his meetings with top Saudi officials.

The ongoing civil war in Syria and related war against the Islamic State has been of much interest to Saudi Arabia. Although the Gulf nation has not directly participated in the multilateral fight, Riyadh has expressed concern over Iran’s growing influence in the region.

The first meeting of the council, co-chaired by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, was held recently in Ankara.

The positions of Saudi Arabia and Turkey are “absolutely identical” on Syria crisis and other regional problems, Al-Jubeir said last week in Ankara following the results of the meeting.

The talks ahead of the UN-brokered Syria peace dialogue, have added significance in terms of efforts that have been directed to reach a political solution to end the six-year conflict in Syria.

The aim of the military operation "Shield of the Euphrates," which Ankara conducts in northern Syria, is to create a safety zone of 5,000 square km.

Armed conflict continues in Syria since March 2011. Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The IS, YPG, and PYD are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.

In late August 2016, Turkey, with the support of the coalition aircraft, launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus in northern Syria from the IS militants. The operation was dubbed the Euphrates Shield.

The UN has repeatedly tried and failed to end the Syrian conflict, which has killed 300,000 and displaced 11 million since its beginning six years ago.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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