Turkish FM casts doubt on Kurdish integration in Syria

Turkey's foreign minister on Monday cast doubt on the willingness of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria to integrate with the country's armed forces by the end of the year.

Turkey views the US-backed SDF, which controls swathes of northeastern Syria, as a terrorist organisation and has warned of military action if the group does not honour the agreement.

Last week, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Turkey hoped to avoid resorting to military action against the SDF, but that its patience was running out.

"We see the SDF has no intention to make too much of an advance [towards integration]," Fidan said on Monday in Damascus after talks between a high-level Turkish delegation and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and others.

"The SDF is running some of its operations in coordination with Israel, [and this] is actually a major obstacle to ongoing negotiations with Damascus," he said.

The visit to Syria's capital by the Turkish officials, who included Turkey's defence minister and intelligence chief, came amid efforts by Syrian, SDF and US officials to show some progress with the deal.

Turkey has accused the SDF of stalling ahead of a year-end deadline, and Israel of resorting to "destabilising" policies in Syria and of causing security risks in the country's south.

There was no immediate comment on Fidan's remarks from the SDF or Israel.

Ankara says the SDF presence along its southern borders poses a security threat to both Turkey and Syria, and that the Damascus government must address this. It has said any integration must ensure the SDF is disbanded - in line with a disarmament process between outlawed Kurdish PKK militants and the Turkish state - and its chain of command broken.

Damascus makes new proposal to SDF

Sources have previously told Reuters that Damascus sent a proposal to the SDF expressing openness to reorganising the group's roughly 50,000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller brigades as long as it cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units.

Shibani said Damascus did not see "any initiative or serious will" from the SDF to implement the agreement but had recently proposed to the Syrian Kurds another way to advance the process.

"...We received a response yesterday and this response is currently being studied," he said.

Turkey has conducted cross-border military operations against the SDF in the past.

(Reuters and TNA staff)