German Defense Chief Suggests UN Mandate For Syrian Security Zone

Mohammad Ali (@ChaudhryMAli88) Published October 23, 2019 | 10:35 PM

German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer expanded on her proposal on Wednesday to create an international security zone in northern Syria, saying it should be set up under UN aegis

BERLIN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd October, 2019) German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer expanded on her proposal on Wednesday to create an international security zone in northern Syria, saying it should be set up under UN aegis.

"It is first and foremost about giving the process momentum that will ideally lead to a UN mandate and a mission led by the United Nations," she said at a televised press briefing.

She first proposed creating an internationally monitored safe zone along the Syrian northern border on Monday to protect the mostly-Kurdish population in the area against the Turkish incursion.

The Turkish and Russian presidents agreed on Tuesday that Ankara would keep control of the territory it had seized and would patrol it together with the Russian military police.

The rest of the border will be patrolled by Russian and Syrian forces. Kurdish militias have 150 hours to leave the border area.

Kramp-Karrenbauer said Germany would not stay idle while "Turkey, our NATO partner... has unlawfully annexed an area and people there are being displaced." She said she would raise this with NATO defense ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

She admitted that after sealing the deal with Turkey Russia "will obviously play a key role, which means it will take us some time to reach a political agreement, but I want us to act instead of being mere observers."