Ahead of power sharing talks and iran reports more deaths from the coronavirus and sees a number of infections jump to nearly 1000. 145. The japanese hold the scale that bill with just 200. 00. Or 2 hold of coronavirus. Thank you for joining as we begin this news hour with the developments in syria turkey has shot down 2 syrian fighter jets from the skies over. Want of a military operation in the northwest of the country targeting areas within it which has been a rebel stronghold the escalation in fighting follows the killing of 34. 00 turkish soldiers in government as strikes on thursday the defense minister says the operation is in selfdefense against president Bashar Assads regime Operation Spring shield is the 4th Turkish Military operation in Northern Syria lets get the latest. For us on turkeys border with syria hashem there were contradictory reports earlier on the downing of a drone for us and warplanes being shot down just bring us up to speed with the latest for us what are you hearing. Funny that syrian fighter jets were shot down in italy a promise the turkish government says that the fighter jets turkish fighter jets faced off with syrian. Fighter jets and that encounter 2 syrian war planes were shot down and that also we defense batteries were destroyed in the. Province so this marks a new escalation in the conflict in syria the syrian Turkish Military says that its Operation Spring shield will continue until the Syrian Government implements the terms of the 2018 deal between russia and turkey that paves the way for the turkish syrian army to pull behind the Demilitarized Zone and allow civilians back into the homes and this obvious from now on was that every single act by the turkish michu would be described as an act of self defense and the retaliation against the death or the 34. 00 turkish soldiers who were killed on thursday across the northern northwestern part of the country we seeing a new pattern of as collation that could be conducive to a full blown confrontation between the syrian army and the Turkish Military and what about fighting elsewhere in syria hashim weve heard reports of a Syrian Government offensive in a day which is of course considered the birthplace of the 27 uprising what do you hear about that. That offensive marks a new twist in the syrian conflict because the city the city of the of asuna main was a rebel stronghold until 2016 when the russians brokered a reconciliation do between the rebels and the Syrian Government that they the way for the Syrian Government to administer the territory and also. Ask the rebels to pull all of their heavy weapons from the areas but ever since the army failed to win the hearts and minds of people today the Syrian Government is saying that theres no political option would like to go and take full control of a son i mean by the rebels still hold ground further north towards. Your wishes in this in southern italy theres a major offensive by the Syrian Rebels backed by turkey of they have managed to reverse some of the gaze made by the made by the Turkish Military by the syrian army in the past few weeks its a remarkable change in the political and military landscape in italy a province about a few days ago was talking about the government why didnt the wave of a spectacular military. Offensive triumphing in a village after village but over the last 48 hours most of those days have been the reverse of this wouldnt have been possible had it not been for the massive backing turkey has been providing to the rebels. Did lip thank you for that hashem mile by live for us in on the turkey syria border well lets now discuss the tensions between turkey and syria and syria further with while who is a former senior syria adviser to Samantha Power who of course served as ambassador to the United Nations under president barack obama is via skype from washington d. C. Thank you very much for being with us so the latest development is that the Syrian Government has closed c. S. Sprays over it live saying that any aircraft that violates this as base will be treated as a hostile fry to be shot down do you think where likely to see any further escalation from the 2 sides especially from turkey after the death of these its soldiers. Thank you the short answer is yes i think turkey is determined to avenge the killing of its 34 soldiers and i think now over 52 soldiers have perished in it. Weve seen the Turkish Air Force particularly its fleet of drones systematically take out regime artillery pieces tanks and also personnel and it seems that they will continue until they feel that they have punished the Syrian Regime enough and dissuaded them and their allied militias from encroaching further up north and ideally retreating to. Into their side of the m 5 highway which is where that the escalation zone kind of border ended it the really the ball is in the regime and the Russian Court right there respond to that either that the except these new terms by turkey or challenge again but do you think russia will let. Alone military confrontation between turkey and syria happen when they want to prevent a full out war at this stage. They would they feel that their limited you know objectives have been achieved reason be securing their interests in syria and projecting their power and they have no interest in a full out war but they also have to be careful in not getting in tangled themselves with turkey and as youve seen now they have actually been. Watching this play out they have not responded against turkey or turkish assets inside it libyan and thats actually angered the Syrian Regime and its allies militias including iranian backed militias if you watch the videos online so turkey does not wish a confrontation and its in a difficult spot now because it has broader economic and political ties with turkey that ideally would have liked to see it look fall to the regime but turkey just now made a cup you know complicated the situation for them and i think russia is going to hope that this is the end of this round but knowing the Syrian Regime they could continue to challenge turkey which will. You know precipitate another round of escalations and how is this latest escalation between turkey and syria be of use by by the west and other nato allies turkey of course being a member of nato how nervous are they about a full military confrontation between turkey and syria. Theres concern but i would tell you is that as a former official in the state department were turkey has done and has a viscerally that the arguments of. Certain policy makers in the Obama Administration that you cannot deter the Syrian Regime or you cannot force it outside of areas where its targeting civilians and what the russians or the turks have done is defacto establish a no go zone they have prevented now the Syrian Regime from driving up north into it live or to even fly their planes i mean there is a de facto no fly zone now that turkey has imposed now is it sustainable we dont know but for now the message has been very clear here is that these things that the Syrian People been asking for particularly to save up or 2016 are possible all right while as ziad thank you very much for speaking to us. Thank you meanwhile thousands of refugees and migrants many of whom have fled the fighting in syria are continuing to gather at greeces land border with turkey the greek Prime Minister has called a meeting of the National Security council Greek Security forces a free vent 210000 people from entering in the past 24 hours the surge in numbers follows turkeys decision to open its borders to europe Greek Police Say more than 500 refugees and migrants also arrived on the greek islands closest to turkey on sunday at the e. U. Border agency and coast guard which is known as frontex has already deployed hundreds of its staff to greece and bulgaria and is looking to deploy even more in response to questions the agency said were monitoring the situation closely and have raised the alert level for all borders with turkey to high were also monitoring the situation in cyprus they say we are in close and Constant Contact with the greek authorities regarding Additional Support we can provide in this rapidly evolving situation well lets get the latest now with natasha good name whos in it d. N. A. On turkeys border with greys natasha tell us about whats been happening where you are and just how many people have been attempting to make that crossing into greece from there. For about 45 minutes we could hear sound bombs just to give you some context this road behind me leads to the official checkpoint with greece greek police were firing tear gas at refugees and migrants at the border who were throwing stones at them theyve been caught in a no mans land able to cross the turkish official border but in between a spot unable to cross the greek border and it has been a very tense and frustrating few days for people who say turkey told us the borders are open you can leave and go to europe but they say we are cold we have no food we have no shelter and we are not being allowed to leave a government spokesman has said as of a short time ago that since turkey opened its borders more than 80000 people have left turkey for europe now those numbers are being questioned by people on the ground given the great resistance theyre facing and difficulty theyre having attempting to cross the government Spokesman Says that the government has modified its policy it will no longer be preventing Syrian Refugees or any other migrants from leaving and instead it shifting its focus and its limited resources to formulating a contingency plan in the event there is an influx of Syrian Refugees from it live the government spokesman adding that it does not have the resources to accommodate an influx considering that it already is host to 3700000 Syrian Refugees the Spokesman Says that it is time for europe to take action it cannot handle this challenge alone thank you for that update natasha good name reporting live from a d. N. A. On the turkish side of the border with greece John Psaropoulos continues our coverage from the greek island of les pauls the main entry point for refugees and migrants coming from the edge and see. A single boat load of refugees is escorted to the shores of less force high winds have likely prevented many others from crossing but they are forecast to die down and more boats are expected to come all who arrive end up here in moria camp there are 22000 people here 7 times what it was built for and many have to find space among the olive groves most are from afghanistan theyve escaped war and death but many say they havent found life here there are no formal schools so 14 year old for operates his family stand selling fruit and vegetables is morea good not good. Red. Maybe a small many bad people here have little to do but wait for their asylum applications to be decided upon and their wait has just become much longer a new asylum law took effect at the beginning of the year that fast tracks new applications so the trajectory applicants can be sent back to turkey as quickly as they arrive but that discriminates against people like these who arrived as a family 5 months ago we head into the smart. 26 this 15 minute but they dont take it to you they see the only take in tales from the people this year and. You have until you 10 months in exile turkey agreed to take back your attorneys in a 2016 statement signed with the European Union and the greek government says it plans to return at least 10000 people this year but whether turkey will all of that agreement in the current Political Climate is an open question so the greek governments entire refugee strategy now hangs in the balance many local people say they have little faith in this new policy. Owns. One of the olive groves next to moria that i should parish that your year ago the refugees were chopping limbs of trees to cook with it but we could still harvest a few olives this year with a bumper crop but we couldnt pick a single olive my land was burned twice then they pitched a few tens onto the burned patch and soon after the land just filled up with tents. The government is using less force as a holding area but many greeks fear that if turkish president had a chapter you threaten flood of refugees becomes a reality the European Union could try and use their country as a buffer zone for the rest of the continent jumps are open aljazeera lesbos well as ill speak to met in about this is an anchor and is the president of the Research Center on asylum and migration thank you very much for being with us so we have now fallen and are refugees on the border with greece not being able to go back to turkey and not being able to go into greece whos responsible for them. I think there is no single Response Response or tory to it is result of growing trant or cancers unfortunately try to find their own solutions nations solutions for many years saw if you look at the Current Crisis turkey has its good jesus it has been posting about foreign media and refugees since. 2011 almost 9 years it turned out to be a protracted crisis and. It has a big burden on turkey and turkey short or it is. Continuous the call for better burden sharing on the other hand if you look at the greek goldmans position the latest statements good is is taking to responsibility off to ormus 11 per cent of all asylum applications in the European Union saw these are the burdens desired the result of the. Reality here. War continues afghanistan is. Concert and stable country but what is the solutions to solution is. More dialogue and more International Intervention better much better burden sharing right but until those solutions are found you you now have refugees who are caught in a no mans land between turkey and greece looking at their immediate situation here just how they able to cope what sort of you know needs to be have right now and what sort of help are they getting if any. Unfortunately as far as i see this is this is going to be. Some off down war iraq too early to spend in or or. And they said they had some small amount of 4 down water and they are going to finish saw it to moment there is nor are site assistance with them they are stopping the good goal imminent deterrent not a lot of them in sight and use all means by garzas etc and we heard that yesterday a greek court to local court sent is about 16 afghan. Refugees to 3. 5 years reason for a saw. Determiners in the greek sites. And people will today theyre lucky but i dont see any chance for down 2 answers so saud there should be an International Intervention until that happens doe you know they are in turkish territory still a lot of them if turkey was to get the assistance that its been asking for more assistance would it be willing to take back some of these refugees. Most probably it is a. Justification of turkish latest decision not to prevent people who want to go or to go to greece on that and today the president s office made this statement that turkey is stick to its temporary protection regime for syrians so on. Or thought it is said. This is not the whole change of asylum policies but partial change to let them go or not to prevent their saw i think if the lesson conses reach means European Union starts the dialogue with turkey and do more of the promises and talks back turkish efforts in the lipsyte because turkey is threatening to what 900000 refugees on the border is or dish saw. There should be. Months maybe this would lead you off the existing 2016. Statement between event thank you very much for speaking to us mr met in. Joining us there from ankara thank you for your time. Thank you more ahead on this news hour including in india more children live on the streets than any other country in the world is education the 1st step to breaking the cycle of poverty ross why and about bernie the democratic president ial hopeful looks to walk away with the latino vote on super tuesday and bizarre sees the german Football Game as top hed stopped playing because an offensive banner in the crowd thats coming up with us at. First a deal signed between the u. S. And the Afghan Taliban may have hit its 1st stops a call afghanistans president says the government did not commit to releasing 5000 taliban prisoners ghani insists that cannot be a precondition for talks with the group a prisoner swap was part of the accord signed in qatar on saturday is meant to pave the way for a long lasting peace and the withdrawal of all american and nato troops in afghanistan there are about 10000 taliban prisoners being held in afghanistan the group says some of them arent actually combatants Hoda Abdelhamid is in kabul with more of what president danny had to say. In less than 24 hours president. Praising signed by the u. S. And the taliban. Stepping stone towards peace and stability in afghanistan you know saying that he ref