U.N. Security Council

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with Russian media he would only quit power if the Syrian people wanted him to and not under pressure from the West, a transcript of the interview published on Sept.16 showed. 

Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu has reiterated his criticism towards United Nations Security Council permanent member states of being irrelevant to the crisis in Syria and Iraq, stressing it was the neighboring countries of Iraq and Syria which have paid the price of those crises. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has harshly slammed the West over ?insensitivity? amid the growing refugee crisis, while announcing the ?joint fight against global terrorism? as a key issue to be discussed during the G-20 Summit in Turkey mid-November.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused all parties in the Syrian conflict of "indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks" on civilians and said the U.N. and its partners couldn't deliver food to 422,000 people in besieged areas in July.

The Arab League?s assistant secretary-general for Palestinian affairs, Mohamed Sobeih, has branded Israel as an ?abnormal? state, saying the pan-Arab body was seeking to issue a resolution from the U.N. Security Council to end the decades-long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Police have detained two Syrians for selling historic coins called "sikke" from the Ottoman era in Istanbul, while 500 historic coins as well as modern currency were also confiscated in the raid.

The two Syrians, identified as M.B. and K.B., were detained after police raided a house in Istanbul's Esenyurt district after a tip was shared that historic coins were being smuggled. 

Neutral Switzerland will officially lift on Aug. 13 sanctions against Iran that had been suspended since January 2014, the government announced on Aug. 13, citing a deal last month between Tehran and six big powers to curb Iran's nuclear program. 

The U.N. Security Council is expected to unanimously approve a resolution on August 7 aimed at identifying those responsible for using chlorine and other chemical weapons in attacks in Syria that have killed and injured a growing number of civilians.

Turkey has announced the freezing of the assets of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and four former senior Yemeni officials in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution. 

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has questioned the legitimacy of the Turkish Air Force's operations in Iraq, primarily against outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants, in an interview with Al-Ahram on Aug. 6.