Fidan criticizes France: America is the only party to our negotiations about northern Syria

According to RCO News Agency, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, in response to a question about the possible deployment of American and French forces in northern Syria to reduce tension with the Kurds, denied any role of France. “The United States is our only partner,” he told reporters in Istanbul. Frankly, we do not consider countries that are trying to advance their interests in Syria by hiding behind America.

He added: We have said many times that there is no chance that we can live with such a threat (from Kurdish groups). Either someone else steps up or us.

Turkey’s foreign minister accused Paris of turning a blind eye to Turkey’s security concerns and called on France to take back French militants imprisoned in Syria.

International efforts to dissuade NATO member Turkey from escalating attacks against the SDF or the US-led Kurdish forces that helped defeat ISIS in 2019 have been unsuccessful.

Qasd is considered by many in the West to be very important to keep ISIS at bay. However, Turkey sees it as a security threat because of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

Fidan and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have threatened to attack Syria. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barro told France’s LCI television channel that he called Fidan to stress that Turkey and France needed a “stable, independent and unified Syria.”

The Syrian Democratic Forces control dozens of prisons and camps in northeastern Syria where thousands of ISIS fighters and their families are held. Among them are dozens of French citizens, along with other foreign extremists whose countries are very concerned about their repatriation. Despite the West’s insistence on the SDF’s vital role in containing ISIS, Turkey has dismissed it as little more than a glorified jailer.

Fidan said: What France should do is to take back its citizens, take them to its prisons and try them.

“It is wrong to ask the YPG, another terrorist organization, to hold these prisoners in exchange for support,” he said, referring to the Kurdish group that makes up the bulk of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

He emphasized that Türkiye’s only goal is to ensure “stability” in Syria.

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