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Damascus rejects Turkey-US talks on ‘security zone’ in N. Syria
Damascus said on Friday it would reject any agreement between Turkey and the US to establish a “security zone” in northern Syria as tantamount to a violation of its sovereignty. “Syria reiterates its categorical rejection of any American-Turkish agreement,” a Foreign Ministry source told state news agency SANA.
Such a deal would “constitute a blatant attack on the sovereignty and unity of the country,” the source added. On Tuesday, Turkey and the US began talks to establish a “security zone” in northern Syria aimed at creating a buffer between Kurdish fighters and the Turkish border.
The idea was first mooted by US President Donald Trump in January, in a call with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a moment when Turkey was threatening to launch an offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria.
Turkey said on Wednesday it was not satisfied with the buffer zone solutions offered by Washington. “We should say things clearly: we have the impression that [the US] is trying to buy time,” AFP quoted FM Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying.
More than 100 people, including 26 children, have died in air strikes on hospitals, schools, markets and bakeries in north-west Syria in the past 10 days, a top UN official says. Human rights chief Michelle Bachelet blamed the attacks in rebel-held areas on the government and its allies. But the attacks were met with "apparent international indifference", she said. Syria and its ally Russia have both denied targeting civilians in air strikes in the Idlib region.
Air attacks have killed at least 11 people in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Sunday, according to rescue workers and a war monitor. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Syrian government air attacks killed six people, including a child, in the village of Urum al-Jawz in western Idlib province while four others, including two children, were killed in raids on Kfarouma in the south of the province.
