Syria's defense minister said Wednesday that Damascus was open to talks with Kurdish-led forces on their integration into the national army but stood ready to use force should negotiations fail.
"The door to negotiation with the (Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces) is currently open," Murhaf Abu Qasra told reporters.
"If we have to use force, we will be ready."
Last month, an official told AFP that an SDF delegation had met Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that spearheaded the opposition offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad.
Sharaa had told Al Arabiya television that Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army so that weapons are "in the hands of the state alone".
The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the ISIS group from its last territory in Syria in 2019.
The group controls much of the oil-producing northeast, where it has enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than a decade.
"They offered us oil, but we don't want oil, we want the institutions and the borders," Abu Qasra said.
Ankara, which has long had ties with HTS, accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Türkiye's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
In an offensive that coincided with the HTS-led advance on Damascus, Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria seized several areas from the SDF late last year.
Earlier this month, then US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he was working to address Turkish concerns and dissuade it from stepping up its offensive against the SDF.
UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that he hoped the warring parties would allow time for a diplomatic solution "so that this does not end in a full military confrontation".
Pedersen said Washington and Ankara "have a key role to play in supporting this" effort.
"We are looking for the beginning of a new Syria and hopefully that will also include the northeast in a peaceful manner," he said.
