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Syria will not let its lands be used to threaten Turkiye: FM

AFP
Thursday, Jan 16, 2025

ANKARA: Syria will never allow its territory to be used as a staging ground for threats against Turkiye, its top diplomat said on Wednesday after talks in Ankara.

“The new administration will not allow Syrian territory to be used as a launchpad to threaten Turkiye and the Turkish people. We will work on removing these threats,” said Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani.

He was referring to the presence of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria, which the West sees as essential in the fight against jihadists but which Ankara regards as a security threat over its links to armed PKK separatists. Since last month´s ouster of strongman Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels,

Turkiye has been threatening to launch a military operation against the SDF, prompting a flurry of US-led diplomatic efforts to head off a confrontation.

“We thank Turkiye for trusting the new administration to address the source of these threats,” Shaibani said after talks with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

“We are now working to solve these issues through negotiation and dialogue, and expect to see reach tangible results in the very near future,” he added.