New Syrian leaders on right track for transformation: Fidan

MUNICH

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has praised the new administration in Syria for pursuing the right path toward the country's transformation and unification, reiterating that regional countries will continue to support Damascus in its efforts to rebuild.

Fidan, who joined the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, attended a special session on Syria under the title of “New Dawn for Damascus: Prospects for Syria’s Transition,” with Syrian Foreign Minister Hasan Al-Shaibani.

The new administration in Syria is responding well to the expectations of the international and regional community for the future of the country Fidan said. “In my meetings with my counterparts and other officials, I haven’t heard big complaints about the new leadership,” he stated.

The expectations from Damascus are well known, the minister said, stressing, “We don't want to see any more threats to the neighboring countries. We don't want to see terrorism flourishing or finding a ground for itself. We don't want to see the mistreatment of the minorities, and we want to see the territorial integrity and political sovereignty of Syria provided and an inclusive governing.”

“So, when we communicated all these requests of the international and regional community with the new administration in Syria, they responded quite well,” he added.

Armed forces should unite under national authority

One of the most important issues for the stability of Syria is the unification of all armed groups under one single authority, the Turkish top diplomat said, saying that the new Syrian leadership is dealing with it in a comprehensive way.

Fidan also stated that Damascus is taking the right steps for unifying the armed groups, adding, “In our view, they are now taking the right steps in uniting the armed groups because we believe that there must be only one single armed force in any given country.”

Past experiences have shown that the presence of armed groups bring only chaos and instability to the region and therefore they won’t tolerate this, Fidan said, adding Ankara is expecting Damascus to stand with it in its counterterrorism efforts.

PKK/YPG is a great threat to Syria and the entire region, as much as the ISIL terrorist organization is, Fidan said, “Because the international terrorist fighters from Türkiye, Iraq, and Iran are now packed and fueled in northern Syria, and they are disguising themselves under the pretext of fighting against DAESH.”

“You cannot allow these people to occupy one third of the country and to sit on the oil and gas fields, to rob the country, and not to allow the central government and millions of the other Syrians to benefit from the oil and gas, so this should end,” he urged.

First in-person meet between Fidan and Rubio

In Munich, Fidan held many bilateral meetings with his mostly European counterparts but his first in-person encounter with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio was surely the most important one.

According to the statements issued by both sides, the two men discussed Turkish-American bilateral relations, especially the economy, trade and defense industries as well as regional and international matters, including Syria, Palestine and the Russian-Ukrainian war.  

Recalling that Ankara had contacted in detail talks with the previous U.S. administration on the presence of the YPG in Syria, Fidan said, “I hope we’ll find an agreement.”

Fidan met with his British, French, and German counterparts, as well as senior EU leaders and his colleagues from the region.