Your trusted source

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has advised Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan not to launch a new military operation in Syria, in advance of the arrival of Russian President Vladimir Putin for a trilateral summit, Al Jazeera reports.

A new military operation would “be to the detriment of Syria, Turkey and the region”, Khamenei was quoted as saying on Tuesday by his website.

The supreme leader did say that Iran would “certainly cooperate” with Turkey “in fighting terrorism”, but he argued that a new offensive in Syria would actually benefit “terrorists”, who he was quoted as saying “are not limited to a certain group”, without elaborating.

Khamenei sought to reassure Erdogan by saying Iran considers the security of Turkey’s borders as it would its own, and said issues in Syria must be resolved through dialogue.

The comments come as Erdogan has said in recent months that he will soon launch a military offensive in at least two cities in northern Syria to create a 30km (18.5 miles) “safe zone” by defeating Kurdish fighters in the region that Turkey considers “terrorists”.