Syria

Britain and Turkey are working "as closely as possible" to stop foreign fighters joining Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Dec. 10.

"We are fighting a common enemy, extremist terrorism," Cameron told a joint news conference in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoğlu.

The U.N. peace envoy to Syria is hopeful for a freeze of hostilities in Aleppo, U.N. Special Syria Envoy Staffan de Mistura's spokesperson Juliette Touma told daily Hürriyet following the talks between Syrian political and military opposition groups in Turkey.

The European Union on Tuesday announced 10 million euros ($12.3 million) in new humanitarian aid for Syrian civilians in Turkey and Syria.
      

The U.N. peace envoy to Syria on Dec. 9 rejected suggestions that a proposed truce in the northern city of Aleppo would play into President Bashar al-Assad's hands, saying it was a stepping stone in a political process and vital to allowing in aid.
   

A group of around 200 refugees from war-torn Syria who have been camped out in front of Parliament at Syntagma Square for some 20 days as they seek asylum in northern Europe, on Tuesday resisted efforts by the City of Athens to transfer the women and children from the group to a municipal shelter.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appealed to U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Dec. 9 for more air raids from Western warplanes and more arms to take on the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in Baghdad on Dec. 9 as the United States expands its presence in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants four months after starting a campaign of air strikes in Iraq.
   

Turkey has been under criticism for some time for becoming too involved in Middle Eastern affairs, thus distancing itself from the European Union and generally the Western world.

The United Nations peace envoy to Syria is holding talks with the Syrian opposition in Turkey to promote a cease-fire proposal for the northern city of Aleppo, opposition sources said on Dec. 8.

Staffan de Mistura hopes the plan will establish truces in Aleppo, once Syria's commercial center and second-most-populous city, and allow aid into rebel districts.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will travel to Turkey on Dec. 9 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss how to stop Britons crossing into Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters via the Turkish border, his spokesman said.