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Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces discuss military merger

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government officials held talks Sunday with the commander of the main Kurdish-led force in the country over plans to merge it with the national army, state media reported, adding that no “tangible results” had been achieved.

The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa inked a deal in March with the Kurdish-led and U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which control much of the northeast. The SDF was to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025, but there have been disagreements on how it would happen.

A major sticking point has been whether the SDF would remain a cohesive unit in the new army or whether it would be dissolved and its members individually absorbed.

The SDF said in a statement Sunday that a delegation led by top commander Mazloum Abdi held talks with government officials in Damascus related to the military integration process.

The SDF later said talks had ended, with details to be released later. The SDF has tens of thousands of fighters and is the main force to be absorbed into Syria’s military.

State TV said the meeting did not produce “tangible results” that would accelerate implementation of the agreement. It said the sides agreed to hold further meetings at a later date.

The deal signed in March also would bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey and airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control. Prisons holding about 9,000 suspected members of the Islamic State group also are expected to come under government control.

Turkey, which enjoys wide influence in Syria, has been opposed to the SDF joining the army as a single unit. Ankara considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey, although a peace process is now underway.

In late December, clashes broke out between security forces and SDF fighters in the northern city of Aleppo during a visit to Syria by Turkey’s foreign minister.

Sunday’s meetings in Damascus came hours after three rockets struck a western neighborhood of the capital, causing some damage to a mosque and a telecommunications center without inflicting casualties, state media said.

The state news agency called the rockets “random” without giving details on where they were fired from or who was behind it.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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