Turkey's top diplomat on Friday ruled out a role for French troops in Syria, saying it was only negotiating with the United States which has sought to head off Turkish military action against Kurdish fighters there.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accused Paris of turning a blind eye to Turkey's security concerns, and called on France to take back French jihadist militants jailed in Syria.
International efforts have been made to dissuade NATO member Turkey from escalating an offensive against the Kurdish-led SDF, which helped US forces to defeat the Islamic State jihadist group in 2019.
The SDF is seen by many in the West as crucial to keeping the jihadists at bay. Turkey however sees it as a security threat over its ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
Asked about the possible deployment of US and French troops in northern Syria to ease tensions with the Kurds, Fidan dismissed any role for France.
"The US is our only interlocutor," he told journalists in Istanbul. "Frankly we don't take into account countries that try to advance their own interests in Syria by hiding behind the US.
"We have said it many times: there is no chance we can live with such a threat (from Kurdish groups). Either someone else will take the step or we will," he added.
Fidan and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made threats this week to launch an offensive in Syria.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the French television channel LCI that he had called Fidan to highlight that Turkey and France need "a stable, sovereign and unified Syria".
SDF: crucial bulwark or jihadist jailer?
SDF forces control dozens of prisons and camps in northeastern Syria where thousands of jihadists and their families are being held.
Among them are several dozen French nationals alongside other foreign extremists whose home nations are deeply concerned about having to take them back.
Despite Western insistence on the crucial role played by the SDF in holding back jihadists, Turkey has dismissed it as little more than a glorified jailer.
"What France should do is take back its own citizens, bring them to its own prisons and judge them," Fidan said.
"It is wrong to ask the YPG, another terrorist organisation, to keep these prisoners in exchange for support," he said, referring to the Kurdish group that makes up the bulk of the SDF.
France was ignoring Turkey's security concerns by not repatriating its jihadists, he said. Turkey's only aim was to ensure "stability" in Syria, he insisted.
"They always put forward their own demands and don't take any steps about our concerns," he added, pledging that Turkey would deal with the problem in its own way.
Barrot said the foreign militant fighters should be "kept where they committed their crime under the surveillance of the Kurds". He added that France would try to bring back the French children of militant fighters.
Last month, Fidan said Western support for the SDF was little more than payback for ensuring their own jihadist nationals did not return home.
Anne Chaon, with AFP
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