Turkey is ready to provide support to the new Syrian administration for the management of Islamic State camps in the country, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, January 15, 2025. Mustafa Kamaci/Presidential Press Office
Turkey is ready to provide support to the new Syrian administration for the management of Islamic State camps in the country, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday.
"As we have always said, we are also ready to provide the necessary assistance to the new administration in the management of DAESH camps and prisons," Fidan said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Speaking in Ankara following his meeting with his Syrian counterpart Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, Fidan also said that Ankara was pleased with the determination of the new administration in the fight against terror.
Shibani said the extensive presence of U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in parts of northern Syria "was no longer justified".
"We will not accept having any parts of Syria or northern Syria outside of the administration's control," he said.
In the joint press conference, Shibani said that the country's new administration would not allow Syrian land to be a source of threat to Turkey.
Since 2016, Turkey has mounted four military operations across growing swathes of northern Syria, citing threats to its national security.
Turkey is estimated to maintain a few thousand troops in towns including Afrin, Azez and Jarablus in northwestern Syria and Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad in the northeast.
Ankara said it may discuss and reevaluate the issue of Turkey's military presence in Syria with the new Syrian administration when necessary conditions arise.
Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu, Jaidaa Taha and Menna Alaa El Din
The conventional wisdom in regional security circles is predictable: Turkey helped birth the new military architecture in post-Assad Syria, meaning Damascus is merely a northern extension of Ankara's strategic reach.
Syria expects negotiations to resume soon with Israel over a security deal it hopes will lead to Israel's withdrawal from Syrian land, a top Syrian minister said, urging Israel to seize a "historic opportunity" as the door for diplomacy is open.
Syria denounced "repeated attacks" by Israel on Saturday after a drone strike hit the south of the country in the morning, just days after Israel bombed a military base in the northwest, with an Israeli minister separately rejecting American criticism over that earlier operation.
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