Turkey, Syria hold high-level security summit as SDF integration talks ramp up
The summit comes as Turkey and Syria coordinate over the future of the Kurdish-led SDF, amid US mediation efforts to meet the year-end integration deadline with Damascus.
ANKARA — High-level Turkish and Syrian officials discussed steps "to fully ensure Syria’s security," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, amid intensifying diplomacy over the planned integration of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) into the Syrian army.
Fidan, Defense Minister Yasar Guler and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin met on Sunday in Ankara with Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Hussein al-Salama.
“We discussed potential joint steps to fully ensure Syria’s security while preserving its territorial integrity,” Fidan wrote on the X platform late Sunday following the high-level security summit. “We evaluated our concrete plans comprehensively and in detail,” he added, without providing further details.
The Ankara meeting took place amid intensifying US-led efforts to implement the March 10 agreement between Damascus and the SDF for the group’s integration into the Syrian army.
