ANKARA: Turkey and the United States will soon launch “comprehensive” air operations to flush ISIS fighters from a zone in northern Syria bordering Turkey, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told Reuters Monday.

Detailed talks between Washington and Ankara on the plans were completed Sunday and regional allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan as well as Britain and France may also take part, Cavusoglu said in an interview.

The United States and Turkey plan to provide air cover for what Washington judges to be moderate Syrian rebels as part of the operations, which aim to flush ISIS from a rectangle of border territory roughly 80 kilometers long, officials familiar with the plans have said.

Diplomats say cutting ISIS’ access to the Turkish border, across which it has been able to bring foreign fighters and supplies, could be a game changer. U.S. jets have already begun airstrikes from Turkish bases in advance of the campaign.

Cavusoglu said the operations would also send a message to President Bashar Assad and help put pressure on his administration to come to the negotiating table and seek a political solution for Syria’s wider war.

Ankara has long argued that lasting peace in Syria can only be achieved with Assad’s departure. U.S. officials, meanwhile, have made clear that the focus of the coalition operations will be squarely on pushing back ISIS.

“Our aim should be eradicating Daesh from both Syria and Iraq, otherwise you cannot bring stability and security,” Cavusoglu said, using another name for ISIS. “But eliminating the root causes of the situation [in Syria] is also essential, which is the regime of course.”

A Pentagon spokesman said U.S. and Turkish military officials had held talks Sunday to work out the tactical details of integrating Turkish combat aircraft into the air campaign against ISIS.

“We’re looking forward in the near future to welcoming Turkey into our combined air operations center,” Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in Washington.

Cavusoglu said Syrian Kurdish PYD militia forces, which have proved a useful ally on the ground for Washington as it launched airstrikes on ISIS elsewhere in Syria, would not have a role in the “safe zone” that the joint operations aim to create, unless they changed their policies.

Ankara is concerned that the PYD and its allies aim to unite Kurdish cantons in northern Syria and fear those ambitions will stoke separatist sentiment among its own Kurds.

“Yes, the PYD has been fighting Daesh ... But the PYD is not fighting for the territorial integrity or political unity of Syria. This is unacceptable,” Cavusoglu said. “We prefer that the moderate opposition forces actually control the safe zone, or Daesh-free areas, in the northern part of Syria, not the PYD, unless they change their policies radically in that sense.”

Diplomatic sources told Reuters last Friday that a second group of rebel fighters trained in Turkey by the U.S.-led coalition could be deployed to Syria within weeks as part of the strategy to push back ISIS. “The train and equip program [alone] will not be enough to fight Daesh,” Cavusoglu said.

Asked whether Iran’s improving relations with West in the wake of its nuclear deal could help the prospects of a diplomatic solution in Syria, Cavusoglu was cautious.

“We are very happy to see that Iran has been normalizing its diplomatic ties with many Western countries,” he said.

“But the situation in Syria, or in the region including Yemen and Iraq, is totally different to the nuclear deal. What we expect from Iran is a more constructive role in Syria and Iraq, and in Yemen,” Cavusoglu said.