US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, visiting Ankara on December 13, stressed the need for continued efforts in post-Assad Syria to counter any resurgence of Islamic State (IS, or ISIS).

“Our countries worked very hard and gave a lot over many years to ensure the elimination of the territorial caliphate of ISIS, to ensure that threat doesn’t rear its head again, and it’s imperative that we keep at those efforts,” Blinken said alongside Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan after they met in Turkey’s capital, as per Reuters.

The difficulty here is that the main fighting force turned to by the US in destroying the caliphate was the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In its conflict with the Kurdish insurgent outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkey’s Erdogan administration does not much distinguish between the SDF, dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, and the PKK, arguing all three groups are “terrorist”.

Since the fall of Syria’s Assad regime just over a week ago, Turkey has taken the opportunity to step up attacks on the SDF in northern Syria. And on December 14, Turkey said that Syria’s new government, formed by the group that spearheaded the offensive that prompted Assad to flee, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), agrees with Ankara on the need to dismantle Kurdish military forces on Syrian soil. Such a consensus, of course, is no surprise, given that HTS was only able to take root, not far from the Turkish border, and flourish as a fighting force in the first place thanks to Turkey’s patronage.

“In the new period, the PKK/YPG terror organisation will be dissolved sooner or later,” Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler told reporters on December 14, as reported by Bloomberg. “Both the new administration in Syria and we want this.”

Turkey wants the YPG to lay down arms, hand over heavy weapons and arrange for the departure of their foreign member fighters from Syria, Guler said. That, he added, would pave the way for YPG’s integration into a future Syrian security force.

“It is out of the question for the Syrian people, or the new administration, or us to allow the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation to act alone and create space for itself,” the minister said. “Our priority is the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation’s eradication. We expressed this clearly to our US friends. We expect them to re-evaluate their positions.”

Guler further said that Washington has yet to reply to a Turkish proposal that three commando brigades would be given responsibility for fighting Islamic State and holding Islamic State detainees in Syria.