Syrian rebel training program delayed again due to transfer of U.S. soldiers: Turkish FM

A joint Turkish-U.S. program to train Syrian rebels has been delayed again as it takes longer time to transfer U.S. soldiers to Turkey, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday.

Turkey and the United States signed in February an agreement to provide training and equipment for Syrian opposition forces.

Earlier this month, Cavusoglu said Turkey will kick start the training program on May 9, adding that a group of 300 Syrian rebel fighters will be trained in the first phase, and a second group of 300 opposition combatants will come to Turkey later.

The program aims to train a total of 15,000 Syrian opposition fighters during a three-year period, 5,000 of whom will be trained at a military base in the central Turkish city of Kirsehir.

The program first starts in Jordan and Turkey, the minister said, adding that Qatar might also be a venue.

"It's all about technical reasons," Turkish foreign minister said in a televised interview with Turkey's state-run TRT 2.

The minister was responding to claims that Ankara and Washington disagree with each other over the purpose of boosting the combat readiness of the Syrian rebels.

Ankara wants the trained fighters to battle both the Islamic State (IS) militants and the Syrian government forces, while the White House says the program would only be used to counter the IS forces.

Cavusoglu also said that Syrian rebels, once finished their training, should be "deployed to safe areas to be efficient on the ground."

The Syrian rebels will also need a no-fly-zone as protection from air strikes by the Syrian authorities, said the minister.

The Turkish government has long been backing military movement to topple Assad's Syrian government, while Damascus slams Ankrara for supporting terrorism in the war-torn country. Endit