– Germany approves anti-ISIS military action in Syria; French president to visit aircraft carrier off Syria
– US reportedly preparing airbase in northeastern Syria
– Syria opposition to meet next week in Riyadh
– Pressure mounting on Dutch to join Syria air strikes
– ‘Nothing new’ from Russia-Turkey talks on downed fighter jet
– Nearly 3,000 migrants detained in four days in Turkey’s west
– UN reports 16 mass graves found after Iraq’s Sinjar freed from ISIS
Germany approves anti-ISIS military action in Syria; French president to visit aircraft carrier off Syria
Germany’s lower house of parliament on Friday approved government plans to join the military campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. Even in Germany where there has traditionally been reluctance to engage in military missions abroad, the government’s decision to take direct action in Syria has been largely met with support. The mission will include sending six Tornado reconnaissance jets, a frigate to help protect the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, refueling aircraft, and up to 1,200 military personnel. Germany however will not be conducting air strikes. Also on Friday, President Francois Hollande will visit the Charles de Gaulle in the eastern Mediterranean off Syria where it is being used to conduct air strikes on ISIS targets, his office said. Hollande is expected to meet fighter pilots and the crews that service the planes in his first visit to one of the sites from which France’s military operations against ISIS are being launched. [Reuters, AFP, 12/4/2015]
US reportedly preparing airbase in northeastern Syria
The United States is preparing an airbase in northeastern Syria as a conduit of supplies for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition fighting ISIS, according to a pro-Damascus newspaper and a local Kurdish outlet. Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported Friday morning that US experts were “close to finishing the preparation of an agricultural airport” in a region of eastern Hasaka controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). “American technicians have worked for more than one and a half months to expand and prepare the airport with a runway specialized for warplanes,” the report claimed. The pro-Syrian regime newspaper said that the airbase was located southeast of the town of Rimelan, which is one of the YPG’s main strongholds and “largest arms and ammunition depots.” According to the report, the airfield was used by Hasaka’s Directorate of Agriculture for crop dusting and has been out of service since 2010. [NOW, 12/4/2015]
Syria opposition to meet next week in Riyadh
A conference bringing together dozens of figures from Syria’s political and armed opposition will be held next week in Riyadh, opposition members said Friday. According to Samir Nashar, a member of the opposition National Coalition, “the meeting will be in Riyadh on Tuesday and Wednesday, and maybe Thursday if necessary.” He said that twenty people would represent the Coalition and that ten other opposition figures were also invited. However, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) have yet to be invited because of pressure from the Istanbul-based Coalition, Nashar said. An opposition source said the armed factions invited are those “not considered terrorist groups,” including the powerful Jaysh al-Islam and the rebel Southern Front. [AFP, 12/4/2015]
Pressure mounting on Dutch to join Syria air strikes
Pressure is mounting on the Netherlands to join US-led air strikes against ISIS in Syria, with several lawmakers late Thursday joining calls for a bombing campaign. The Dutch cabinet however said it would reach a decision to take part in the US-led operation only once “all military and political aspects” of the Syrian conflict had been discussed. “It will be good to see a stop being put to [ISIS]’s Syrian pipeline,” said Han ten Broeke, lawmaker for Prime Minister’s Mark Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). Four Dutch F-16 jet fighters have been hitting ISIS in Iraq since October last year, but The Hague said it would not carry out air strikes over Syria without a UN mandate. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders told the meeting that requests have been received from both France and the United States to join the coalition in bombing ISIS in Syria. [AFP, 12/4/2015]
‘Nothing new’ from Russia-Turkey talks on downed fighter jet
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had heard “nothing new” from his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Dec. 3 after the first high-level bilateral contact between the two countries since the Turkish air force shot down a Russian jet on Nov. 24. He said Russia had reiterated its own position during the meeting with Cavusoglu on the sidelines of a conference of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Serbian capital Belgrade. In a speech during a visit to Baku, Azerbaijan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu again defended Turkey’s action and said Turkey will not apologize for defending its borders. “No one can blame Turkey, no one can expect an apology from Turkey,” Davutoglu said in the speech, which was televised on Turkish television. [AP, Hurriyet, 12/3/2015]
Nearly 3,000 migrants detained in four days in Turkey’s west
Nearly 3,000 migrants and suspected human traffickers have been detained in the northwestern province of Canakkale over the past four days, in operations conducted to stop migrants from crossing over to Greek islands through Turkey. Canakkale Gendarmerie Command forces have captured at least 2,933 migrants in the province’s Ayvacik district since Dec. 1, in operations it says were launched to prevent both migrant deaths and illegal crossings into Lesbos, a Greek island. In addition, thirty-five people have been detained on suspicion of human trafficking. [Hurriyet, 12/4/2015]
UN reports 16 mass graves found after Iraq’s Sinjar freed from ISIS
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Iraq said on Friday that it has received reports of sixteen mass graves discovered near the town of Sinjar after it was liberated from ISIS last month. There were no immediate details about how many bodies might be inside the newly found Sinjar graves, according to OHCHR spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly. Among the first mass graves uncovered in Sinjar, one near the town’s center has been estimated to contain the bodies of seventy-eight elderly women, and another, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) outside of Sinjar, with between fifty and sixty bodies of men, women, and children, according to the Sinjar Head of Intelligence Qasim Samir. Meanwhile, the US-led coalition aircraft carried out eighteen airstrikes on Iraq Friday, including one near Sinjar that targeted an ISIS tactical unit. [AP, 12/4/2015]