Turkey raps France, says US only counterpart in northeast Syria

Turkey’s top diplomat rules out a role for French troops in Syria, saying it is only negotiating with the United States which has sought to head off Turkish military action against Kurdish fighters there.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accuses Paris of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s security concerns and calls on France to take back French jihadist militants jailed in Syria.

International efforts have been made to dissuade NATO member Turkey from escalating an offensive against the Kurdish-led SDF, which helped US forces defeat the Islamic State jihadist group in 2019.

The SDF is seen by many in the West as crucial to keeping the jihadists at bay. Turkey however sees it as a security threat over its ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

Asked about the possible deployment of US and French troops in northern Syria to ease tensions with the Kurds, Fidan dismisses any role for France.

“The US is our only interlocutor,” he tells journalists in Istanbul. “Frankly we don’t take into account countries that try to advance their own interests in Syria by hiding behind the US.

“We have said it many times: there is no chance we can live with such a threat [from Kurdish groups]. Either someone else will take the step or we will,” he adds.

Fidan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made threats this week to launch an offensive in Syria.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot tell the French television channel LCI that he had called Fidan to highlight that Turkey and France need “a stable, sovereign and unified Syria.”