Turkey Has No Plans to Hand Over Al-Bab to Damascus after Op over: Deputy PM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Turkey does not plan to hand over Al-Bab to the Syrian government after the operation is over, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Tuesday.
The US-led international coalition against Daesh terrorist group does not provide effective support to the Turkish military operation in northern Syria near the city of Al-Bab, Kurtulmus said.
"Unfortunately, the coalition forces do not give sufficient support to the operations in al-Bab. I speak of it openly," Kurtulmus said in his interview with Anadolu news agency, Sputnik reported.
"We are not conducting this operation in order to hand over territories to the government. We have repeatedly said from the very beginning that the operation is being conducted in order to strengthen our security and eliminate threats from the South," Kurtulmus explained.
On December 29, 2016, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also criticized the coalition forces, saying that the United States provided no air support to Turkey's military in the Euphrates Shield operation against Daesh. The operation is conducted in northern Syria by Turkish military together with the Free Syrian Army fighters and with air support by the US-led coalition.
Last week, Turkey and Russia began jointly striking Daesh in Al-Bab, which is the first time the countries' aviation conducted a joint aerial campaign.
