By Ahval
The United States and Turkey, which find themselves on the same side on Syria’s rebel-held province of Idlib, should act together in preventing a looming humanitarian crisis, Foreign Policy magazine said.
Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime has announced the start of its campaign to retake Syria’s Idlib province— seen as the last opposition stronghold and a region home to an estimated 3 million people, including around 1 million displaced from other parts of Syria, the magazine recalled.
The United States has all the tools to mitigate a catastrophe in the province that has become a ‘’depository for Assad regime opponents from all over Syria,’’ it said, highlighting that the country has a moral imperative to do what it can to stop or prevent the worst outcomes.
A massive new flow of refugees from the province – estimated to be around 800,000 – would be too much for Turkey, home to 3.5 million Syrian refugees, to deal with while potentially throwing Europe into chaos.
‘’Failure to do anything to stem the offensive in Idlib would undercut what senior U.S. officials now articulate as U.S. policy. The United States seeks the revival and implementation of the Geneva political process, a series of peace talks, to end the war. They insist that Assad must transition from power and that Iran and its proxy forces must leave before U.S. forces withdraw from northeast Syria. These objectives may already be out of reach, but if the United States stands by and allows Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies to march into Idlib… it will only weaken the U.S. position to influence the end state of the Syrian conflict,’’ Foreign Policy stressed.
Pointing out that working with Turkey will not be easy for the United States, the article highlighted acting together in this region could be a positive step toward improving broader U.S.-Turkish relations.
Accordingly, the United States should continue to create diplomatic top cover for Turkey as it negotiates with Russia, Iran, and the Assad government, the article stressed.
