Turkey has no plans to enter Syria’s Raqqa: Erdogan’s spokesman

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish President’s assistant Ibrahim Kalin said that Ankara has no intention to launch military operations in the province of Raqqa in northern Syria.

In an interview with Turkish news agency Haberturk, Kalin said the Turkish forces in cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition are next planning to free the city of Al-Bab which has been under the Islamic State’s control since mid-November, 2013.

Kalin who is also the current Press Secretary in the Turkish Presidential Complex, added that Turkey is still skeptical about the Kurdish forces’ withdrawal to the eastern bank of the Euphrates River and said Ankara will continue fighting them.

Kalin stressed that “Turkey doesn’t care about whether Kurds are fighting against the Islamic State too, or not.”

“The Hezbollah are battling against the IS too; are you going to justify them too?” he said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusogly said earlier that Turkey can't launch an offensive in Raqqa yet. He said they are wainting for the U.S.-led coalition's response, having declared earlier that air strikes are not sufficient for cleaning the whole province from the IS militants.