Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Friday that the new Syrian administration should be given an opportunity to address the presence of Kurdish militants in the country, and reiterated that the Turkish military would act if it did not.

Although the French government has not publicly proposed guarding the Turkish-Syrian border, French President Emmanuel Macron stated earlier this week that Paris would not abandon the SDF, which has been one of the many factions involved in Syria's 13-year-long civil war.

A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups

By Daren Butler, Ece Toksabay and Umit Ozdal ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Talks aimed at ending a 40-year-old militant conflict have fostered peace hopes in Turkey but the precarious situation of Kurdish forces in Syria and uncertainty about Ankara's intentions have left many Kurds anxious about the path ahead.

Turkey is working to ensure that Syria's transformation over the last month will not bring new instabilities to the region, President Tayyip Erdogan told the Iraqi Kurdish prime minister, Erdogan's office said on Tuesday.

The Turkish Armed Forces have been put on high combat readiness due to the possibility of conducting an operation against Kurdish armed groups in Syria. This information was relayed to the pro-government newspaper "Türkiye" by sources from the Turkish Ministry of Defense.