Syria’s new interim leader, meeting on Tuesday with the president of Turkey, thanked him for backing the rebel forces that toppled the Assad dictatorship and said he now sought

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa invited Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to visit Syria soon in a joint press conference in Ankara on Tuesday, as relations between the two countries thaw under the new Syrian administration.

Syria’s interim president is in the Turkish capital for talks expected to focus on Syria’s economic recovery and the presence of Kurdish-led forces in the north of the country that Turkey considers to be a security threat.