Syria is opposed to any attempt to carve up its neighbour and fellow Arab state Iraq, and in particular to the creation of an independent Kurdish state, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a television interview. “We are opposed, not only to a Kurdish state but also to any action against the territorial integrity of Iraq,” he told the Turkish-language station of CNN television on the eve of a historic visit to Turkey, the first by a Syrian leader for 58 years. Turkey is home to about half the Kurds — an ethnically distinct people numbering between 25 and 35 million and living in a mountainous region stretching into Syria, Iraq and Iran. “Iraq’s future is bound to the future of all of us,” Assad said. “For that reason, the break-up of Iraq would be a red line, not only as far as Syria and Turkey are concerned, but for all the countries in the region.” Full Story
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