“But a ground operation remains possible at any time, depending on the level of threats,” the Turkish official insisted, speaking to reporters from several foreign media outlets.
“A ground military operation in Syria is possible at any time,” Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Saturday.
“We continue to support the political process” that began at the end of December with the meeting between the defense ministers of Turkey and Syria in Moscow, he stressed.
“But a ground operation remains possible at any time, depending on the level of threats,” the Turkish official insisted, speaking to reporters from several foreign media outlets.
He announced a possible new meeting of the defense ministers of the two countries ahead of the one scheduled for mid-February between the foreign ministers of Turkey and Syria.
“We want security on our borders,” he said, referring to the presence of Kurdish forces on Syrian soil.
“We never target the (interests of) the Syrian state or Syrian civilians,” he noted.
However, security guarantees promised by Russia and the US after the last Turkish offensive in Syria in 2019 “have not been met” and Kurdish fighters have not withdrawn 30km from the border as promised, it said.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned on Thursday that any rapprochement with his Turkish counterpart should be conditional on “the end of Turkish occupation” in northern Syria.
Turkey has launched three attacks on Syrian soil since 2016 against Kurdish forces in the north, which have allowed it to bring a border strip on the Syrian side under Turkish control.
RES-EMP
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
