Iraq

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has stated that he has received “strong signals” from U.S. President Barack Obama indicating changes in Washington’s policy on Syria.

Today, there are “more joint parameters” between Turkey and the United States for following an integrated strategy that covers both Iraq and Syria, Davutoğlu said.  

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Nov. 16 claimed to have executed Peter Kassig, a US aid worker kidnapped in Syria, as a warning to the United States.
      
The same video showed the gruesome simultaneous beheadings of at least 18 men described as Syrian military personnel, the latest in a series of mass executions and other atrocities carried out by IS.

US President Barack Obama on Sunday rejected any alliance with Bashar al-Assad against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), arguing that the Syrian ruler was illegitimate and that any such pact would backfire.
      

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu discussed the crisis in Syria and Iraq with U.S. President Barack Obama on Nov. 15, according to the Turkish Prime Ministry.
      

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov warned of risk of "import of terrorists" from Iraq and Syria in an interview for the Darik national radio.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group is locked in a war of attrition in the Syrian border town of Kobane, where Kurdish fighters backed by US-led air strikes are mounting fierce resistance.

Two months after ISIL launched a major offensive to try to capture the strategic prize on the Turkish frontier, the jihadists have failed to defeat the town’s Kurdish defenders.

Answering a question from a journalist about reports claiming U.S. President Barack Obama has changed his strategy on Syria to prioritize the removal of Bashar al-Assad, to aid in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Nov.

On the same day that the front pages of a number of Turkish newspapers were suggesting that, at long last, U.S. President Barack Obama had got closer to the Turkish leadership’s line that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go first, the Hürriyet Daily News’ headline quoted the new U.S.

Last week I had the chance to have a tête-à-tête conversation with Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), one of the United States’ most established think tanks. He was in Istanbul for the publication of the Turkish edition of his latest book, “Foreign Policy Begins at Home.”

Senior U.S. officials have denied that the Obama administration is reviewing its Syria policy to include the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the program, reiterating that Iraq remains the current focus.