ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Jordan will take steps toward jointly combating Islamic State in the region and they aim to hold a first meeting on the issue in Jordan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday.
Since the ousting of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December, Western and regional countries have warned of a possible resurgence of Islamic State.
Thousands of members of the militant Islamist group are being held in prison camps in northeast Syria.
Fidan told Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency that the four countries had reached a preliminary agreement for closer cooperation involving their foreign and defence ministries and intelligence agencies.
The four countries plan to take measures on border security, he added, though he did not say but did not say when the first meeting would take place.
The U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are guarding the Islamic State prison camps in northeast Syria. Turkey regards the SDF and the YPG militia which spearheads the group as terrorists, and says the prisons must be handed over to Syria’s new leadership.
Ankara has repeatedly said it would support the new Syrian administration – which is friendly toward Turkey – in its battle against both Islamic State and the YPG, while calling for a joint battle against them.
On Tuesday, President Tayyip Erdogan hosted Syria’s newly appointed president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Ankara for talks on steps to be taken against Kurdish militants and other issues.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth Jones)
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