Algerian police Tuesday prevented a weekly protest by students in the capital for the first time since an anti-regime movement took to the streets in February, AFP journalists and witnesses said.

Turkey said Tuesday it was ready for an offensive into northern Syria, while President Donald Trump insisted the United States had not abandoned its Kurdish allies who would be targeted in the assault. 

An EU observer mission Tuesday regretted the lack of campaigning for Tunisia's presidential run-off between a candidate detained in prison and a rival who has called off his own canvassing for votes.

Russia's security council said on Tuesday it was important to avoid hindering the peace process in Syria, following discussions with President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Damascus is ready to welcome Syria's Kurds back into the fold after Washington left them to face Turkish military threats alone, a senior official said in comments published Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has warned Turkey against going too far in Syria, just a day after giving Ankara an apparent green light to invade its southern neighbor and sparking panic among Washington's Kurdish allies.

The US pulled back 50 to 100 "special operators" from Syria's northern frontier, where they have served as a buffer preventing a long-planned assault by the Turkish military against Kurdish forces in Syria. 

Turkey's preparations for an offensive in northern Syria have been "completed", the defence ministry said Tuesday, after confusing signals from the US over whether it would allow an operation.

US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Turkey's border with Syria after a phone call with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. 

Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif told his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in a phone call that Tehran is opposed to military action in Syria, the foreign ministry said.

A feared Turkish invasion of northeast Syria could spark a resurgence of the Islamic State group, analysts and Kurdish forces have warned, despite Ankara's pledge to prevent the jihadists' return.

The Pentagon said Monday the United States does not endorse a threatened Turkish military invasion of northern Syria, and cautioned that such a move risked destabilizing the region.