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Türkiye’s top diplomat and military and intelligence chiefs visited Syria on Monday as a deadline to implement a deal between officials approached damascus And Kurdish-led forces are moving into the north-east of the country.
Appearing alongside his Syrian counterpart, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the talks focused on the integration of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces into the new Syrian Army, as well as Israel’s military incursion into southern Syria and the fight against the Islamic State group.
“Of great importance to the stability of Syria turkey,” he said. Fidan led a delegation that also included Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin. He met Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Under the agreement signed in March between Al-Sharaa’s government and SDFKurdish-led forces were to merge into the new Syrian army, but details were left vague and implementation has stalled.
A major issue was whether the SDF would remain as a cohesive unit in the new army or whether it would be disbanded and its members individually absorbed into the new army.
Türkiye has been opposed to joining the SDF as a single entity. Ankara considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has led a long-running insurgency in Turkey, although a peace process is now underway.
kurdish Officials have said a preliminary agreement has been reached to allow three SDF-affiliated divisions to be integrated as units into the new army, but it is unclear how close the sides are to finalizing it. The original deadline for implementation of the March Agreement was the end of the year, and there were fears of military confrontation if progress was not made by then.
Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shibani, speaking alongside Fidan, said, “We have not seen any initiative or serious will on the part of the Syrian Democratic Forces to implement this agreement. There has been systematic delay.”
He said Damascus had submitted a proposal to the SDF to move forward with military annexation and received a response on Sunday without detail.
Fidan criticized Israel’s “expansionist policies” in Syria and accused the SDF of coordinating with Israel without providing evidence. Israel is wary of new authorities in Syria following the fall of former President Bashar Assad in December 2024.
Although al-Sharaa, the former leader of the Islamist rebel group, has said he does not want conflict with Israel, Israeli forces have moved to seize the UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military sites.
While Turkey had a complicated relationship with al-Sharaa when he was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed faction that ruled much of northwest Syria, Ankara has supported his government since he led the charge that ousted Assad.
Turkey, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, intervened to persuade US President Donald Trump to lift decades-old sanctions on Syria. The Turkish military has also provided assistance to the new Syrian army, including training cadets and officers.