US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” for refugees fleeing violence in the war-torn country.
“I’ll absolutely do safe zones in Syria for the people,” Trump told ABC News in an interview, without giving details.
According to a document seen by Reuters, Trump is expected to order the Pentagon and State Department in the coming 90 days to craft such a plan.
Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of US President Donald Trump’s pledge to order safe zones in Syria, and has long advocated such a plan, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said on Thursday.
“We have seen the US President’s request for conducting a study. What’s important is the results of this study and what kind of recommendation will come out,” Muftuoglu told reporters at a briefing in Ankara.
“Setting up of safe zones is something Turkey has advocated from the start. The best example is in Jarablus,” he said, referring to a town near the Turkish border that was freed from the ISIS extremist group by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels last August.
The Turkish-backed rebel offensive in northern Syria, dubbed Euphrates Shield, drove ISIS militants from the last 100-km strip of border territory they still controlled and created what Turkish officials have already been referring to as a “de facto safe zone.”
Within days of the liberation of Jarablus, the Syrian interim government has set upon implementing projects to offer basic services the civilian population and restore life in these areas to normality. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office + Agencies)
