July 28, 2021

News Agency in Battle Creek MI, USA | Apadana Media

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Turkish authorities have intercepted a boat carrying more than 200 Afghan migrants in the Aegean sea heading for Europe, Turkey’s coastguard and the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday.

The interception near Turkey’s western shores came as hundreds of Afghans cross into eastern Turkey from Iran, after a rise in violence in their own country as the United States and its NATO allies withdraw and Taliban fighters seize territory.

Afghans have for years been crossing from Iran into Turkey, many of them en route to Europe, but the number of detentions this month has raised concerns about a new influx.

Officials said last week they had detained 1,500 irregular migrants, most of them Afghans, near the Iranian border in the previous 10 days.

The migrants intercepted in the Aegean were believed to be en route to Italy, the coastguard official said. Of the 231 migrants on the boat, 208 were Afghans and others were from Syria, Iran, Eritrea and Pakistan, the official added.

The coastguard detained two Turkish nationals steering the boat and escorted migrants to a deportation centre in the western Turkish town of Ayvacik.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s government, already hosting 3.7 million Syrian refugees, wants to avoid another refugee wave, and Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said two weeks ago that Turkey was closely monitoring any influx of Afghan migrants.

Turkey is building a wall along a 64-km (40-mile) stretch of the Iranian border in the eastern province of Van, where many of the migrants cross.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says there were over 100,000 Afghan asylum seekers in Turkey last year.

(Reporting by Yesim Dikmen, Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Dominic Evans and Timothy Heritage)

News Agency in Battle Creek MI, USA | Apadana Media

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“Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

The announcement comes hours after President Trump held a phone call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two reportedly discussed the conflict and agreed to a meeting in Washington in November.

More than 1,000 U.S. troops are currently deployed in northeastern Syria, where they work closely with Kurdish fighters who have proven to be among Washington’s strongest allies in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Erdogan has repeatedly expressed frustration with Washington’s close alliance with the Kurds along his country’s border with Syria, linking them to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is designated a terrorist organization in Turkey.

The U.S., in an effort to reduce tensions in the region, has been working on establishing a safe zone along the border. But the plans have faltered, and the Turkish president in recent days has warned that Ankara will soon be launching a military operation across the border, as soon as within the next couple of days.

Grisham in her Sunday statement added the U.S. will not be holding any more ISIS fighters, and that “Turkey will now be responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years in the wake of the defeat of the territorial ‘Caliphate’ by the United States.”

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Days after the US warned again, that anyone dealing with the  oil tanker released by Gibraltar would face sanctions, Islamic Republic  said on Monday that it had sold the crude oil cargo the now notorious tanker. Islamic Republic  doesn’t know where the tanker is headed now, Mullah media quoted Ali Rabiee, a spokesman for the  Mullahs, as saying on Monday.

Grace 1, under her new name Adrian Darya 1, left Gibraltar more than a week ago after the government of Gibraltar said it is unable to seek an Order of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar to provide the restraining assistance that the U.S. had required to keep the tanker detained.

Adrian Darya 1 was traveling south of Greece last week, before signaling on Saturday that she could be bound for the Turkish port of Mersin while the U.S. continued to warn that it would go after everyone touching the tanker or the oil aboard.

On Sunday, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton tweeted: “All hands on deck in the campaign to stop Islamic Republic from funding terror, destabilizing the globe, and breaking international sanctions. The illicit oil heading to Turkey on the Adrian Darya 1 must not be allowed off-loaded in port or at sea.”

According to Refinitiv Eikon shipping data carried by Reuters, the Adrian Darya 1—west of the island of Crete in the Mediterranean as of Monday- was no longer reported as bound for Turkey.

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