Turkey agrees for five-day ceasefire in Syria: Mike Pence
Ankara: Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday that the US and Turkey had agreed to a five-day cease-fire in northern Syria to allow for a Kurdish withdrawal from a security zone roughly 20 miles south of the Turkish border, in what appeared to be a significant embrace of Turkey's position in the week-long conflict.
After more than four hours of negotiations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Pence said the purpose of his high-level mission was to end the bloodshed caused by Turkey's invasion of Syria, and remained silent on whether the agreement amounted to another abandonment of the US's former Kurdish allies in the fight against the Islamic State.
Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched their offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria a week ago, two days after Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing the US from the area.
Pence and Secretary of State Mile Pompeo lauded the deal as a significant achievement, and Trump tweeted that it was "a great day for civilization."
But the agreement essentially gives the Turks what they had sought to achieve with their military operation in the first place. After the Kurdish forces are cleared from the safe zone, Turkey has committed to a permanent cease-fire but is under no obligation to withdraw its troops.
In addition, the deal gives Turkey relief from sanctions the administration had imposed and threatened to impose since the invasion began, meaning there will be no penalty for the operation.
Kurdish forces were not party to the agreement, and it was not immediately clear whether they would comply. Before the talks, the Kurds indicated they would object to any agreement along the lines of what was announced by Pence. But Pence maintained that the US had obtained "repeated assurances from them that they'll be moving out."
Ankara has long argued the Kurdish fighters are nothing more than an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s and which Turkey, as well as the US and European Union, designate as a terrorist organization. (AP)
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Assam Police at Pawan Khera's residence in national capital, Delhi Police assisting
New Delhi (PTI): An Assam Police team on Tuesday is at the Delhi residence of Congress leader Pawan Khera for questioning in connection with a case linked to allegations made against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his family, official sources said.
The team formally informed Delhi Police upon arrival, following which a local police team joined and is assisting in the proceedings, the source said.
The development comes amid a political tussle after Sarma alleged that the Congress used "false information" sourced from a Pakistani social media group to level charges against his wife regarding multiple passports and overseas assets. He termed the allegations an attempt to influence the Assam elections and a punishable offence.
Khera had recently sought clarifications on Sarma's wife's alleged foreign assets, prompting a complaint and subsequent police action.
