New Syrian authorities able to handle IS detainee camps, says Turkish minister

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Syria’s interim authorities is able to take management of IS detainee camps at the moment run by US-backed Kurdish militants, Turkey’s international minister mentioned throughout a go to to Damascus.

Turkey’s prime diplomat Hakan Fidan has grow to be the primary international minister to journey to Syria to fulfill the chief of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, who additionally goes by his start identify Ahmed al-Sharaa. HTS led the offensive that just lately toppled former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“The Syrian administration has instructed us that it is able to take the required initiatives to take again these prisoners,” Fidan mentioned on Sunday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which helped defeat ISIS with U.S. air assist, are protecting about 10,000 captured fighters and 1000’s of their members of the family in camps in jap Syria. Syria. Washington has warned that IS might attempt to exploit Syria’s present instability and maintains round 2,000 US particular forces within the area.

The Turkish authorities has referred to as for the dissolution of the Individuals’s Protection Items (YPG), a Kurdish militia that dominates the SDF, because it considers their self-administration alongside Turkey’s southern border a risk to nationwide safety .

Turkey additionally accuses the YPG of being an offshoot of the Kurdistan Employees’ Social gathering (PKK), which took up arms towards the Turkish state in 1984, resulting in the deaths of 40,000 folks.

Fidan mentioned on Sunday that Western nations had allowed the YPG to “illegally” occupy almost a 3rd of Syrian territory in change for protecting them there. Isis inmates locked in Syria, however mentioned he believed US President-elect Donald Trump would quickly change course.

“If you happen to take a look at the state of affairs from the perspective of American pursuits, and in case you do the mathematics, is Turkey necessary or is a terrorist group just like the PKK necessary? Mr. Trump instantly sees the calculation,” he mentioned.

Turkey is able to “present the strongest assist” within the combat towards ISIS, Fidan added.

HTS chief Jolani mentioned controlling Syria’s numerous armed teams was a prime precedence and his administration would announce the brand new construction of the Protection Ministry and the military inside days. “We won’t enable any weapons to be outdoors the state, whether or not from the revolutionary factions or the factions current within the SDF area,” he mentioned.

Turkey, which most overtly helps Syrian rebels of their 13-year warfare towards Assad, has pledged to assist rebuild its neighbor and referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood to have interaction with Syria’s new leaders. Fidan mentioned he hoped his go to would encourage different governments to ship high-level officers.

“We consider that the brand new administration in Damascus will take applicable measures to ensure the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of Syria. Throughout my assembly with [Jolani]I heard the framework of this imaginative and prescient,” Fidan mentioned.

Lebanese Druze chief Walid Jumblatt additionally met with Jolani on Sunday, with each males calling for a reset of relations between the 2 nations, which have been marked by tensions for many years.

Jumblatt, who holds the earlier regime accountable for the assassination of his political father in 1977, had beforehand mentioned he would solely return to Damascus after the autumn of the Assad authorities.

Jolani referred to as for a break with the troubled previous, saying the previous Syrian authorities “was a supply of concern and disruption.”

“On this new period, the approaching Syria will stand on the similar distance from everybody in Lebanon and there will probably be no instances of detrimental interference,” he added.