Post-Assad Syria will never allow its territory to be used as a staging ground for threats against Turkey, its top diplomat said on January 16 after talks in Ankara. The commitment was a clear reference to Syrian Kurdish forces who,

The new administration’s first visit to Ankara comes amid an intensifying struggle for the partition of Syria between the states behind the overthrow of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by jihadists led by the al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

The pro-Ankara groups succeeded in capturing Kurdish-held Manbij city and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province, despite US-led efforts to establish a truce in the Manbij area. The fighting has continued since, with hundreds of people killed, mostly fighters.

On 11 January, the Syrian government reduced customs duties on goods from Arab countries by up to 60 percent, while increasing duties on Turkish imports by up to 300 percent, applying a uniform rate across all neighbouring countries. This decision has drawn criticism from Turkey’s business community.

Syria turned in to a literal free-for-all, almost immediately after the fall of Assad regime which essentially ended the Syria civil war, with Israel, Turkey, and the US moving swiftly to achieve their respective goals in the region.

Syria’s new government has strongly condemned Israel’s incursions into a U.N.-monitored buffer zone, urging the international community to pressure Israel into withdrawing.

Turkey has offered military assistance and capacity-building support to the new Syrian military to combat “terrorist groups”, during an unprecedented visit by a high-level Syrian delegation led by the new Syrian foreign minister to Ankara on Wednesday.

A rightist ally of President Erdogan, Devlet Bahceli of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party, this week openly questioned Greece’s sovereignty over the islands of the southeastern Aegean. In so doing Mr. Bahceli challenges the provisions of international laws and agreements such as the 1923 Lausanne Treaty.

The appointment of trustees and other attacks on democratic rights by the government show that the renewed negotiations between Ankara and the PKK, which Ankara has been trying to suppress for 40 years,

US Central Command said its chief met with Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria and urged the repatriation of foreign Islamic State group fighters, as Kurds battle Turkey-backed groups in the region.

Turkey is ready to provide support to the new Syrian administration for the management of Islamic State camps in the country, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday.