Turkey Says It Won’t Launch Ground Action Alone Against ISIS

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey could not be expected to take action on its own and said the world needed to focus on ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as fighting the extremist groups. “It’s not realistic to expect that Turkey will lead a ground operation on its own,” Cavusoglu said at a news conference with visiting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Cavusoglu said that true peace can never be restored in Syria without the departure of “Assad and his regime”. He also said that the current US-led air strikes against ISIS would not be enough to bring peace to Syria and a ground operation in coordination with anti-IS Syrian rebels should be considered. “Air strikes can reverse the balance of power and stop ISIS, but will not be enough to clean the region of ISIS,” Cavusoglu said Salem al-Meslet, spokesman for the Syrian Coalition, said that “the plans set out by Turkey to join the international anti-ISIS coalition, described by news outlets as preconditions, are in fact much needed prerequisites for any effective campaign against terrorism in the region.” Meslet was commenting on the conditions set out by the Turkish President for his country to join the international anti-ISIS coalition, namely the establishing of a buffer zone along the Syrian-Turkish borders, a no-fly zone and stepping up training and equipment for the moderate forces in Syria and Iraq to confront terrorism. Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the Assad regime is one of the main creators of terrorism in the region during an interview with CNN. He also said that his country might send ground troops to fight ISIS but only as part of a comprehensive strategy that also includes targeting the Assad regime. Meslet stresses that “addressing the problem of terrorism in isolation from the terrorism of the Assad would be useless because the Assad regime is the root cause behind the emergence of these extremist groups, and Assad’s survival in power will lead to the emergence of new extremist organizations in the future, even if under different names. Tackling the threat of terrorism piecemeal will surely further complicate the situation in Syria and will also threaten the security of neighboring countries and the region as a whole.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)