Turkey’s top diplomat, defense minister and intelligence chief paid a sudden visit to Damascus. The visit Thursday comes days after Syria’s interim government reached a deal to integrate a U.S backed Kurdish-led armed group,

By Timour Azhari, Phil Stewart, Jonathan Spicer and Suleiman Al-Khalidi DAMASCUS (Reuters) -The United States encouraged its Syrian Kurdish allies to reach Monday's landmark deal with the Islamist-led government in Damascus,

Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the interim president of Syria and a former rebel, met with Turkish officials in the Syrian capital, including Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s foreign minister, Yasar Guler, defence minister, and Ibrahim Kalin, the head of national intelligence. They were accompanied by Turkey’s ambassador to Syria, Burhan Koroglu.