Secretary of State John Kerry has raised the possibility of a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians even as President Barack Obama has consistently rejected the idea, several administration officials told CNN.
Officials said Kerry has asked his staff to further develop the idea and raised the issue at a National Security Council meeting last week, where Obama discussed the U.S. strategy for stemming the bloody civil war in Syria with his top advisers.
Kerry “wants to revisit this and for it to be looked at more seriously,” one senior administration official said, adding that the secretary of state has been advocating within the administration for “more robust measures” in Syria.
While the primary discussion at Thursday’s NSC meeting was about the northern border with Turkey, the officials said there has been some initial talk about an additional no-fly zone near Syria’s southern border with Jordan, although another official said the southern option “was even less thought out.”
“I expect this discussion process to go on quite intensively for the next few weeks,” the second official said. (Source: Syrian Coalition)