Turkey has outlined a plan to set up bases for its armed forces in Syria, a report says.

The Turkiye newspaper on Monday said, “Turkey will train the country’s army in two military bases it will establish in Syria.”

It added that in the framework of a military agreement between Ankara and the foreign-backed militants running Syria, the Turkish bases will be used to train the new armed forces of the country.

“Turkey and Syria will sign a joint defense agreement. According to the agreement, which is expected to be signed soon, Ankara will help Syria if Damascus faces a sudden threat,” Turkiye reported.

The HTS militant group seized power in Syria in December amid repeated Israeli strikes against the Syrian army, navy and air force bases.

Fifty Turkish Air Force F-16 jetfighters are planned to nest inside the new bases to support and protect the HTS from collapse until a new Syrian air force is established, according to the paper.

Syrian pilots are to receive training by the Turkish military as well, the report added.

Turkish drones, radars, and electronic warfare systems will be deployed along the country’s border with Israel, according to the agreement.

Former HTS commander Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who has been named as the country’s new transitional “president” to replace Bashar al-Assad, announced that all armed factions, including the HTS, will be dissolved and responsibilities will be transferred to replacements.

Since overrunning Syria, Jolani has been ramping up efforts to dissociate himself from the terrorist groups who wreaked havoc in the region.

Jolani functioned as a Daesh commander in Iraq’s Nineveh and Mosul Provinces before being handpicked by Daesh’s former ringleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2012 to establish a Syrian affiliate at the beginning of the foreign-backed militancy in the region.

Jolani, who is expected to visit Ankara soon, has been a close ally of Ankara in the conflict against Damascus in the past years, receiving weapons, ammunition, provisions and personnel. 

“We believe that Turkey-Syria relations, which have been reestablished after the liberation of Syria, will strengthen and gain dimension with the visit by Ahmad Al-Sharaa (Jolani) and his delegation,” said Fahrettin Altun, the head of the Turkish presidency’s Directorate of Communications.

Ankara’s forces in Syria have supported Jolani for years and backed the attacks that toppled the democratically-elected Assad government in an 11-day offensive.

Jolani also announced that he would not engage in a conflict with the Israeli regime.

Israeli forces have occupied large swathes of southern Syria after the annihilation and abandonment of Syrian armed forces and the demolition of the Arab country’s military bases, weapons and munitions depots.

The new leadership in Damascus has also called on Russia to recompense for the HTS’s losses during Moscow’s close cooperation with Damascus.