Arab foreign ministers slam Turkish ‘aggression’ in Syria

CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers on Saturday condemned Turkey’s "aggression" in Syria where it is pressing an offensive against Kurdish forces, calling for an immediate withdrawal of Ankara’s troops.

The statement came after an emergency session of the Arab League in Cairo called for by Egypt to discuss Turkey’s assault on the Kurds, who have carved out a fragile semi-autonomy in Syria’s northeast.

The deadly offensive launched on Wednesday has sparked broad international condemnation and threats of sanctions.

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit slammed the Turkish attack as an "invasion of an Arab land".

The ministers called for "ending the aggression and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Turkey from all of Syria’s land", the statement said.

The group said Ankara’s offensive was a "direct threat to Arab national security", adding they would consider "urgent measures to confront the Turkish aggression".

The potential responses included diplomatic and economic actions, as well as "military cooperation to confront the Turkish aggression", the statement said.

The foreign ministers of Iraq and Lebanon also called for Syria’s Arab League membership to be unfrozen.

Damascus has been suspended from the pan-Arab bloc since 2011 over its bloody crackdown on protesters.

The Kurds served as the main ground partner in the US-led fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, where they overran the last scrap of the Jihadists’ "caliphate" in March.

Turkey says the main Kurdish militia in Syria is a "terrorist" group with links to its own Kurdish insurgency.

Ankara’s military campaign appeared almost inevitable after President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that US troops deployed in northern Syria were pulling back from the border.

Meanwhile, Germany is halting sales of weapons to Turkey over its operation against Kurdish militias in northern Syria, its foreign minister was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Germany, along with many of its allies, has condemned the offensive that Ankara says is targeting the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia -- a force that has played a key role against the Islamic State group in Syria.

"In the context of the Turkish military offensive in northeastern Syria, the government will not issue any new permits for any military equipment that could be used in Syria by Turkey," Maas was quoted as telling the Sunday edition of Bild.

Last year, Germany exported arms totalling almost 243 million euros ($270 million) to fellow Nato member Turkey -- almost a third of its total weapons sales of 771 million euros.

And in the first four months of this year, sales to Turkey -- its biggest customer in Nato -- reached 184 million euros.

Germany’s population includes about 2.5 million people of Turkish origin.

Germany is one of the world’s biggest arms exporters along with the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

Last year it imposed an embargo on weapons sales to Saudi Arabia after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Riyadh’s consulate in Istanbul.

Maas this week warned that Turkey’s operation risked the resurgence of IS in the region and that it could trigger a humanitarian disaster.