SYRIA: Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said today that any dialogue between Syria and Turkey should only take place after Ankara announces that it will withdraw its troops from all territories in his country. 

This came during a joint news conference with Iran’s acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani after Turkey threatened in recent days to act against Kurdish-led authorities in Syria’s north-east .

CYPRUS: President Nikos Christodoulide said today that he won’t “open another route” for irregular migration by letting through more than two dozen asylum-seekers now stranded in a UN-controlled buffer zone that bisects the island.