Al-Shaibani is continuing his diplomatic duties by outreaching to governments who have vowed to support post-Assad Syria [Getty/file photo]
Syria’s interim Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani is set to travel to Turkey on Wednesday on his first official visit since he was appointed following the fall of the Assad regime.
“We will represent the new Syria tomorrow in the first official visit to the Turkish republic, which has not abandoned the Syrian people for 14 years,” he said on X.
Turkey has backed armed opposition groups fighting against Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian Civil War, triggered by the regime’s brutal repression of peaceful protests in 2011. Ankara has also militarily intervened in the conflict, specifically against Kurdish groups since 2016.
Since al-Assad’s ouster, Ankara has maintained a working relationship with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebels and has pledged to forge strategic relations with the Syrian interim government and aid its post-Assad recovery.
Al-Shaibani, who holds a PhD from Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, has previously visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and the UAE after taking office on 21 December as part of a Middle East tour.
Al-Shaibani heads to Ankara with a high-level delegation and is set to meet with his counterpart Hakan Fidan, Minister of National Defence Yasar Guler, and Intelligence Director Ibrahim Kalin.
Clashes between remnants of pro-Assad groups and new Syria government
Meanwhile, clashes broke out on Tuesday between Assad-aligned forces and the Syrian interim authorities after two members of Syria’s Military Security Department were killed and seven others captured in the countryside of Latakia.
The kidnapped personnel were subsequently freed by the caretaker Syrian authorities, according to Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Knefati, according to The New Arab’s Arabic-language site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
Knefati said that the so-called Bassam Nasser al-Din, a former officer in the 25th Division led by Suhail al-Hassan, who threatened to kill the captives, was killed in the operation aimed at freeing the personnel.
The incident comes as Syrian authorities conduct broader campaigns in Homs, Damascus, and Latakia provinces against remaining affiliates of the Assad regime, as well as seizing warehouses containing Assad-era weapons and other ammunition.Â
Syria’s General Security Department seized a warehouse containing explosive materials in Homs, central Syria, on Tuesday. The official news agency SANA said: “The General Security Department was able to seize a warehouse of explosive materials, including mines and rocket-propelled grenades, in the village of Umm Haratin, west of Homs.”Â
SDF, SFA continue fighting in northeast Syria
Meanwhile, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), reportedly repelled an offensive carried out by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), near strategic Tishrin Dam, in the northeast of the country.
At least 18 fighters from the Ankara-supported group were killed, the SDF said, and nine others were wounded.
The area has been the site of fierce battles triggered by the SNA’s attempts to gain control of the dam, as well as the Qaraquzaq Bridge, both located in the Manbij countryside of Aleppo.
According to the SDF, the SNA launched a large-scale attack on the Syritael Hills area using warplanes and unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV), to which the US-backed Kurdish group responded. A DShK weapon and a BMB armored vehicle were reportedly destroyed, and another damaged.
As a response, the SNA then launched a retaliation against the Kurdish forces, killing five fighters.
In recent weeks, at least 280 have been killed in fighting in Syria’s northeast, home to several important dams on the Euphrates River, with the Tishrin dam being one of Syria’s significant sources of hydroelectric power generation.
