Turkey asks Britain's MI6 ‘to protect Syria's Sharaa’

Turkey's intelligence agency asked its British counterpart MI6 last month to take a larger role in protecting Syrian President Anmed al-Sharaa after recent assassination plots, according to five people familiar with the matter.

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BROTHERS IN ARMS: Syria President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan arrive at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, on Feb 4, 2025.

After this story was published, Turkey denied that its intelligence agency MIT had made any such request to MI6.

The request highlights efforts by foreign allies to shore up a country still shaken by sporadic violence 15 months after the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, with the US-Israeli war on Iran now rattling the wider region.

Those allies see Mr Sharaa as crucial to preventing a relapse into sectarian fighting or civil war, after 14 years of civil conflict drove millions of refugees abroad and allowed Islamic State (IS) to control swathes of Syria.

The militants last month stepped up attacks on military and security personnel across Syria and declared Sharaa, a former rebel, their “number one foe”.

It was unclear what specifically Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, had asked of MI6, or what new role, if any, MI6 had taken up.