Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has met with Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa – also known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani – to discuss support for the new administration in Damascus.
Photographs and footage shared by Turkey’s foreign ministry showed Fidan and Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group, walking ahead of a crowded delegation in Damascus before posing for photographs on Sunday.
A video released by the Turkish Anadolu state news agency showed the two men warmly greeting, shaking hands and hugging each other.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his top diplomat would be going to Damascus to discuss the new structure in Syria.
Erdogan himself is reportedly considering a visit to Syria. Turkey’s Chargé d’Affaires in Syria, Burhan Koroglu Koroglu mentioned that Erdogan’s visit might occur following Fidan’s trip to Damascus.
Turkey’s spy chief Ibrahim Kalin earlier visited the Syrian capital city on December 12, just a few days after Syria’s militant groups led by ousted Syria’s Bashar Assad after a lightning offensive.
Turkey has been a key backer of various militant groups opposing President Assad’s rule over the Arab country in recent years.
However, Fidan has rejected claims by US President-elect Donald Trump that the militants’ victory in Syria constituted an “unfriendly takeover” of the Arab country by Turkey.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule in Syria. But US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda and had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
HTS along with many other militant groups seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to leave his country.
Turkey wants HTS chief to disband Kurdish groups in Syria
On Saturday, Fidan said that Turkey would do “whatever it takes” to ensure its security if the new Syrian administration cannot address Ankara’s concerns about US-allied Kurdish groups it views as terrorist groups.
Hostilities have escalated since the fall of al-Assad less than two weeks ago, with Turkey and Syrian groups back seizing the city of Manbij from the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Dec. 9.
Turkey regards the YPG, the militant group spearheading the SDF, as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants who have fought an insurgency against the Turkish state for 40 years and are deemed terrorists by Ankara.
Ankara, alongside allied militant groups, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the YPG-led SDF in northern Syria, while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halt support for the fighters.
In a recent interview, Fidan said Ankara’s preferred option was for the new administration in Damascus to disband the YPG immediately.
“If it doesn’t happen, we have to protect our own national security,” he said. When asked if that included military action, Fidan said: “Whatever it takes.”
Syria has been gripped by foreign-sponsored militancy since March 2011.
