Ankara / AFP Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has defended his country’s fight against Kurdish fighters in Syria as “legitimate defence”, after international powers urged Ankara to rein in its cross-border bombardments. Turkey has been shelling targets in northern Syria for the past week in a bid to stem the advances of a Kurdish-led coalition that has seized territory in …

Beirut / AFP Moscow pledged to continue backing the Syrian government in its fight against “terrorism”, dashing hopes for a ceasefire the opposition said it would only back if the regime and its supporters hold fire. World powers have been pushing for a so-called cessation of hostilities to pave the way for renewed negotiations aimed at ending Syria’s war nearly …

Amman / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that a provisional agreement had been reached with Russia on the terms of a ceasefire in Syria. Kerry told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman that he had spoken with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov again on Sunday on the terms of a ceasefire agreed by world powers earlier …