Their meeting was the first since the former rebel leader led the offensive that last month toppled Syria’s former autocratic ruler, Bashar al-Assad.

Syria’s interim president is in the Turkish capital for talks expected to focus on Syria’s economic recovery and the presence of Kurdish-led forces in the north of the country that Turkey considers to be a security threat.

Syria’s new interim leader, meeting on Tuesday with the president of Turkey, thanked him for backing the rebel forces that toppled the Assad dictatorship and said he now sought