Turkey expects the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement to begin in early 2026, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said today.
He told a news conference in Damascus that talks between US, Qatari and Egyptian officials, held in Miami over the weekend, focused on obstacles that make it difficult to move the agreement to the next stage.
He added that the priority is for a Palestinian-led group to take over the governance of Gaza, Reuters reports.
Fidan is on a working visit to Damascus with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yaşar Guler and Intelligence Chief Ibrahim Kalin.
Speaking about the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a military-political coalition in Syria, made up mainly of Kurdish militias, which Turkey considers a threat, at a conference with his Syrian counterpart, Assad Hassan al-Shaibani, in Damascus, Fidan said they had shown little willingness to make progress in integration talks with the government in Damascus.
He added that the group's behavior has become a serious obstacle to ongoing negotiations, accusing it of coordinating certain activities with Israel.
Turkey has opposed joining the SDF as a single entity, and considers them a terrorist organization with past ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a long-running armed insurgency in Turkey.
The PKK was disbanded this year, during the ongoing peace process.
Syrian Minister Al-Shaibani said the SDF had received a proposal from Damascus to continue joining the Syrian army and that he had received a response on Sunday, but did not provide details, the Associated Press reported.
Kurdish officials said a preliminary agreement was reached in March allowing three SDF-affiliated divisions to be integrated into the new army, but it is not known how close the parties are to implementing it.
The original deadline for implementing the agreement was the end of the year.
Turkey, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, intervened to persuade US President Donald Trump to lift sanctions on Syria, which had been in place since 2011.
The Turkish military has also provided support to the new Syrian army, including training cadets and officers.
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