The Syrian government denies holding direct talks with Hezbollah in Türkiye

(CNN) - On Thursday, the Syrian government responded to allegations about holding direct talks with the Lebanese Hezbollah group in Türkiye.

The allegation came in a post published by the owner of the Timour Azhari account on the X platform (formerly Twitter), in which he stated: “The Syrian government and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah held direct talks in Turkey in an attempt to calm tensions between them, according to six sources familiar with the first known meeting between these two parties, which have long been adversaries.”

The “Syrian Response” page, run by the Syrian government, responded with a blog post on the X platform, saying: “These allegations are false. No such meeting was held.”

This comes at a time when tensions are escalating between the Syrian government and the Hezbollah group, as the Syrian authorities announced, on Tuesday, the thwarting of a “sabotage plan” within the Yarmouk Basin in the Daraa Governorate in the south of the country, accusing a cell that it said was affiliated with the Lebanese Hezbollah of involvement in it.

On Tuesday, the official Syrian Al-Ikhbariya channel quoted the Internal Security Forces as saying that this took place as part of a “preemptive security operation” in cooperation with the General Intelligence Service.

Since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime, Hezbollah has repeatedly denied involvement in military movements inside Syria.