Syria

The U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and President Barack Obama’s key foreign policy aide, Samantha Power, will visit Turkey this week to discuss the Syrian crisis and other regional issues, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials have told the Hürriyet Daily News.

Iraqi police and army forces abandoned their posts in the city of Mosul after militants overran the provincial government headquarters and other key buildings, report ABC News.

The information was confirmed by provincial officials and residents. 

The Turkish government has blacklisted Nigeria’s fundamentalist militant group Boko Haram in line with a U.N. Security Council decision that recently placed the group on the U.N.’s list of terrorist organizations associated with al-Qaeda.

Former U.N. envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has warned that the war-torn country was heading toward becoming “another Somalia” ruled by warlords, in an interview published in a German weekly this weekend.

Senior Iranian and U.S. officials were poised to hold direct talks in Geneva June 9 aimed at bridging gaps on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme ahead of a July deadline for a deal.

For the Islamic republic, the goal is to make a leap towards ending the international sanctions that have battered its economy.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced on Monday a 'general amnesty' for all crimes committed to date, the country's state television said, cited by international media.

The decree was issued in the context of "social forgiveness, national cohesion calls for coexistence, as the army secures several military victories," the channel said, quoting Justice Minister Najem al-Ahmad.

Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, who pays a historic visit to Turkey, described partnership between Turkey and Iran as “strategic” and “strong” with future plans to deepen relations in every field including joint fight against "extremist terror" in reference to growing concerns about the existence of some radical groups in Syria

High-level Turkish and American diplomats will hold meetings in Washington Monday and Tuesday to exchange views about bilateral, regional and global issues, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on June 7.

Murat Yetkin murat.yetkin@hdn.com.tr “How could we understand that some tourists from Europe are jihadists,” a Turkish security official complained to the Hürriyet Daily News on June 6. “It is not written on their foreheads.

Turkey and Iran will sign at least six new agreements when Iranian President Hasan Rouhani conducts his first visit to Turkey on June 9 with the goal of enhancing political, economic and cultural relations between the two neighbors.