Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said Syria was not displaying a “positive” attitude towards the normalization of ties between Ankara and Damascus, adding that President Bashar al-Assad is not involved in discussions.

The outgoing commander of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq and Syria on Sunday said that the absence of a Peshmerga minister has stalled the efforts to reform and unify the forces, warning that Washington might stop providing assistance to the Peshmerga ministry if no progress is made.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to visit Baghdad on Wednesday, followed by a visit to the Kurdistan Region’s capital Erbil the day after, and meet with a number of top officials from both the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Monday commended Iraq for repatriating nationals, affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS), from northeast Syria (Rojava), according to a statement by the Department of Defense.

Iraq’s water reserves are the “lowest” in the country’s history, having reduced to almost half of last year’s amount, a spokesperson for the Iraqi water ministry told on Monday.

A blast rocked grain silos at Kocaeli province’s Derince port in northwestern Turkey on Monday, wounding at least 12 people and damaging over a dozen facilities.