Turkey cautiously optimistic about Syrian deal with Kurdish forces, official says

Turkey is "cautiously optimistic" about an agreement between the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syria's new government, a Turkish official said on Tuesday, adding Ankara wanted to first see how it would be implemented.

The SDF, which controls much of Syria's northeast and which Ankara views as a terrorist organisation because of links to Kurdish militants in Turkey, signed an agreement to join Syria's new state institutions, the Syrian presidency said on Monday.

The accord provides for SDF-controlled civilian and military institutions in northeast Syria to be integrated with the state, and for border crossings, an airport, and oil and gas fields in Syria's east to become part of the Damascus administration.

It came at a critical moment as Damascus grapples with the fallout from mass killings of Alawite minority members in western Syria - violence that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Monday threatened his effort to unite Syria after 14 years of conflict.

"We are cautiously optimistic about the accord. Beyond the agreement that was reached, we are looking at how it will be implemented at this stage," the official told Reuters, adding the group "had made promises before too, so we are looking at implementation rather than an expression of intent here."

Since rebels, some of whom were backed by Turkey for years, ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year to end his five-decade rule, Ankara has become one of the main foreign allies of the new Islamist government in Damascus.

Ankara, which still controls swathes of territory in Syria's north after cross-border operations against the YPG militia that spearheads the SDF, has repeatedly demanded that the YPG disarms and disbands, and for any non-Syrian fighters in the militia to leave the country.

The Turkish official, requesting anonymity, said the accord did not change Turkey's determination to fight terrorism, and said the YPG should not join Syrian institutions as a bloc, but rather be integrated by having its chain of command broken up.

An SDF spokesperson said on Monday the agreement had been reached with U.S. mediation. Washington has some 3,000 troops in northeast Syria, whom Ankara has said it hopes will be withdrawn under President Donald Trump's term.

The Turkish official said talks at the weekend between Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Jordan in Amman regarding security cooperation between the four countries, including establishing an operations centre, sharing intelligence and handing over prison camps where Islamic States fighters are held by the SDF, were influential in the SDF-Damascus deal being agreed as well.

The Turkish official said the talks in Amman had conveyed the message that the presence of the YPG in Syria would not be tolerated.

The agreement between the SDF and Damascus also comes after the outlawed Kurdish PKK militant group said earlier this month that it would halt hostilities against the Turkish state, after a call from its jailed leader to disarm.

The PKK, which launched an insurgency against the Turkish state in 1984, is designated a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.