Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday that any military operation launched by Ankara against Kurdish militants in northern Syria would “harm” the region.
During a meeting with Erdogan, Khamenei said such an operation would “harm Syria, harm Turkey, and harm the region,” according to a statement posted on his website. He warned that Turkey’s possible move would interfere with “the political role expected of the Syrian government as well” and would benefit the “terrorists”.
Khamenei, who has the last word in the supreme policy of the Islamic Republic, said that “Iran, Turkey, Syria and Russia should solve this problem through dialogue.” On Tuesday, Tehran will host a trilateral summit on the conflict in Syria, which will be attended by President Ibrahim Raisi, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Presidents Erdogan and Putin are holding the first trilateral presidential-level meeting since 2019 as part of the Astana Peace Process, aimed at ending the Syrian conflict that has flared up since 2011.
Russia, Iran and Turkey have played key roles in the Syrian conflict since its inception. Moscow and Tehran’s support for President Bashar al-Assad has shifted the balance on the ground in favor of his forces, while Turkey has supported opposition groups. Erdogan has been threatening for two months now to launch a military operation against the areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the backbone of which are Kurdish militants, from the Turkish border to the Manbij and Tal Rifaat districts in the rural Aleppo province in northern Syria. Turkey and Syrian groups loyal to it have controlled the adjacent border areas in the north since 2016. Ankara fears a strong Syrian Kurdish presence on its borders, which could strengthen the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebel group, which it classifies as a terrorist organization, inside it.
Khamenei assured Erdogan that Tehran is “certainly ready to cooperate with you in the fight against terrorism”, stressing the need to “counter terrorism, but an attack (Turkey) in Syria will only benefit terrorists, and terrorists are not a particular group.”
