Iran Says Turkey's Syria Offensive Must 'End Now'

Key Damascus ally Iran on Tuesday renewed its call on Ankara to end a deadly assault on northeastern Syria, as Turkey pressed a cross-border offensive against Kurdish forces.

"The imperative now is to end the incursion into #Syria," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter.

Iran had on Thursday called for an immediate halt to the offensive, launched on October 9 after the United States announced it would withdraw all its troops from the area.

Since then, Syria's massively outgunned Kurds have forged a deal with Damascus, allowing regime soldiers to redeploy in the Kurd-controlled region for the first time since 2012.

Despite international outcry over its assault, Turkey has vowed to pursue its offensive, slamming the "dirty deal" between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and Kurdish forces.