Turkey, US to sign deal to train and equip Syrian rebels
Turkey and the United States aim to finalize an agreement on equipping and training moderate Syrian rebels this month, a senior foreign ministry official said on Monday, part of the US-led campaign to battle the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants.
The training is expected to start in March, simultaneously with similar programs in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the Turkish official said.
The aim is to train 15,000 Syrian rebels over three years.
"Around 1,500 to 2,000 people are expected to be trained in Turkey [in the first year]," the official said, adding that a "limited number" of US soldiers would come to Turkey to help carry out the training jointly with Turkish colleagues.
The training is planned to take place at a base in the central Turkish city of Kırşehir.
ISIL has seized large swathes of territory in Syria and around one third of Iraq. It seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in June last year.
Turkey has been a reluctant partner in the US-led coalition against the insurgents, refusing a frontline military role despite its 1,200 kilometer (750-mile) border with Iraq and Syria.
But it agreed in principle to train and equip Syrian rebels and is already training Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. Ankara has signaled that it is ready to extend similar assistance to the Iraqi army and send arms.
Turkey has long argued that air strikes alone are not enough to bring stability.
It wants a comprehensive strategy including the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before it will give stronger support to the US-led campaign.
Syria's Western-backed political opposition group, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNC), has elected a new presidential committee and a president widely seen as not tied to any of the body's international sponsors.
Despite having tenuous links with fighters on the ground and being seen as out of touch with ordinary Syrians, the National Coalition remains one of the main parties in international discussions to find solutions to the almost four-year civil war.
Khaled Khoja takes over as president from Hadi al-Bahra, who is considered to have close links with Saudi Arabia. Bahra served for one term and did not run for a second but will be in the political committee.
Khoja, a 49-year-old Damascus-born doctor and businessman, won 56 votes out of 106 votes cast at a closed meeting in İstanbul on Sunday. The 111-member body also elected a new secretary-general and vice presidents.
The role of the vice president reserved for a Kurdish member had not yet been filled, as the Kurdish bloc had not yet presented a new nominee, the National Coalition said.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres is visiting Turkey on Jan. 5-7 to meet senior Turkish government officials and address the seventh ambassadors' conference.
Paying an official visit to Turkey upon the invitation of Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Guterres is scheduled to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Interior Minister Efkan Ala.
Sharing a long border with Syria, Turkey has also welcomed Syrians escaping the civil war and currently hosts around 1.6 million Syrian refugees. Turkish officials have recently voiced concern that there may be a new refugee influx over the Syrian border if the city of Aleppo falls.
Turkey, US to sign deal to train and equip Syrian rebels
Think we should stop blaming Israel for everything.
