Iran’s Judiciary Chief Warns of ISIL’s Revival Due to Turkey’s Incursion into Syria

There is a danger that the ISIL “which has been created by the Americans and the Zionists, has committed the biggest crimes in the region and their hands are stained with the regional people’s blood will respire and commit crimes again”, Rayeesi said, addressing the judiciary officials in Tehran on Monday.

“Worse than this is the massacre of the Muslim people in the region which cannot be tolerated by anyone at all,” he added.

Rayeesi expressed the hope that the Turkish government would pull back to behind the international borders immediately.

Aid groups operating in Northeastern Syria raised the alarm about civilian casualties and an impending humanitarian crisis this week, as Turkey began a military assault on the turbulent region’s Kurdish militants.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Human Rights Watch and other groups have warned about everything from massive new flows of refugees to conditions for detained ISIL fighters from a previous phase of chaotic war in Syria.

Turkish forces began an offensive in Syria’s Northeast on Wednesday to clear out Kurdish militias, within days of US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw some US troops from Syria’s turbulent North. MSF teams remain ready to provide medical care after the Turkish military launched operations and are preparing for a potential increase of patients linked to the conflict.

Every day people are being displaced from locations along the border due to the conflict and are extremely worried that the military intervention will threaten their safety and wellbeing. Military operations against Kurdish fighters began Wednesday with air strikes rocking the Syrian border town of Ras al Ain with large explosions, as Turkey moved tanks, artillery, and howitzers in preparation for a broader assault.

UN Spokesman Farhan Haq said aid groups would have to scale-up at a time of crisis and urged the region’s armed forces to keep the Turkey-Syria border open so that aid trucks could bring food, medicine and other gear to those affected by fighting. Ankara claims to be seeking to create a “safe zone” to return millions of refugees to Syrian soil and end a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border. Turkey says Kurdish YPG fighters in northeast Syria are also terrorists due to their links to militants waging an insurgency inside Turkey.

There is no doubt whatsoever that the new escalation will only make the situation worse for millions of Syrian refugees who are still unable to return to their homeland. What the war-torn country needs is now a complete withdrawal of all foreign troops from the region, including American and Turkish forces. The truth is that only Syrian forces have the right to take security matters into their own hands and not foreign forces.

According to estimates by the UN, more than 400,000 people have been killed in Syria since the start of the war. The UN reports that, as of January 2019, more than 5.6 million have fled the country, and over 6 million have been internally displaced. Many refugees have fled to Jordan and Lebanon, straining already weak infrastructure and limited resources. More than 3.4 million Syrians have fled to Turkey, and many have attempted to seek refuge in Europe.

Damascus has censured Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest remarks concerning his keenness to protect Syrian people and their rights as far from reality, emphasizing that the Damascus government will respond to Ankara’s offensive into the Northeastern part of the country through all available legal means.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad has also attacked Kurdish fighters, saying they had betrayed their country. He accused US-backed Kurdish militants of following a separatist agenda that gave Turkey a pretext to violate his country’s sovereignty.

The Turkish military had launched two cross-border incursions in Northern Syria, namely “Euphrates Shield” in August 2016 and “Olive Branch” in January 2018 with the declared aim of eradicating Kurdish militants and ISIL terrorists near Turkey’s borders.

Addressing the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in late September, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem lashed out at Turkey for providing “terrorists with all forms of support, including weapons that are more sophisticated”, stating that Ankara’s action undermines all agreements reached during the Astana talks in Kazakhstan.

“If Turkey is truly committed to the security of its borders and the unity of Syria, as it claims, it must choose whether to respect the Astana understandings and the bilateral agreements on counter-terrorism to secure the borders and to withdraw its forces from Syria, or to be the aggressor and the occupier – and to face the consequences,” he noted.

Muallem stated that Syria is resolved to rid the entire Arab country of foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.

In a recent interview with Al-Mayadeen television news network, the top Syrian diplomat said “every inch” of the Syrian territory will be liberated from terrorists very soon.