ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – A Syrian foreign ministry source on Monday denied Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporting suggesting Damascus intends to hand over Uyghur foreign fighters to China, following an official visit by Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to the country.

“There is no truth to what AFP reported about the Syrian government's intention to hand over any fighters to China,” state media asserted, citing an “official source” in the foreign ministry.

The rebuttal comes after the agency, relying on the accounts of “two sources,” one a government source and the other a Syrian diplomat, claimed that Syrian authorities plan to “hand over jihadist fighters from China's Uyghur minority to Beijing.”

“China refused the fighters' integration into the new Syrian army,” the government source told AFP, adding that Damascus plans to return the fighters “in batches” based on Beijing’s request.

Meanwhile, the diplomatic source told the agency that "Syria intends to hand over 400 Uyghur fighters to China in the coming period."

The assertions come amid high-level talks between Syrian and Chinese top diplomats on Monday, as Shaibani paid his first official visit to the country.

In a press conference, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning stated that the “East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) [rebranded as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP)] is an international terrorist organization… Syria promised that it does not allow any entities to use its territory to undermine China’s interests.”

She added that Beijing wishes that Damascus would take necessary measures to remove “the obstacles in the security area” standing before the development of relations between the two countries.

A joint statement, released following the meeting, revealed that the talks emphasized enhancing “cooperation in counterterrorism and security” between the two countries.

The Uyghurs are a Turkic minority hailing from western China's Xinjiang who have faced repressive measures imposed by Beijing, including cultural suppression, forced sterilization, and being rounded up and sent to internment camps. The US State Department in 2021 declared that Chinese measures taken against the Uyghurs constitute a genocide.

Uyghur foreign fighters flocked to Syria following the 2011 civil unrest and armed struggle against the Baathist regime led by former President Bashar al-Assad, with the majority being part of the TIP, an Idlib-based Uyghur-dominated armed Islamist group.

Damascus has faced obstacles in handling the remnants of foreign fighters who aided the now-dissolved Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in toppling the former regime, as the new government seeks to strengthen ties with Western nations and abandon its jihadist reputation.

Last month, Syrian government forces surrounded a camp in Idlib housing foreign French jihadists after the French government demanded that two of its nationals be handed over, leading to an armed confrontation resulting in a number of casualties and arrests.