President of the Syrian Coalition, Abdurrahman Mustafa, associated the establishment of a buffer zone in northern Syria with “the framework of supporting a political solution” as he stressed that the ultimate goal should be to ensure security throughout the country.
“Supporting the establishment of a buffer zone in Syria comes within the framework of supporting a political solution rather than putting more obstacles to this solution,” President Mustafa said Tuesday.
“The ultimate goal should be to ensure security throughout Syria and to ensure the safety of the Syrian people in their entirety; enable them to regain their freedom and rights; and provide a safe, appropriate environment for them to play their role in building a free country.”
President Mustafa earlier stressed that the establishment of a buffer zone in northern Syria is necessary to act as a safe haven for civilians in Syria and to facilitate the return of refugees to the country.
He pointed out that “the US withdrawal must be coordinated with the Turkish ally to avoid vacuum in the areas from which the US will withdraw its troops and to prevent the terrorist groups and the Assad regime and its allies from trying to fill any possible vacuum.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday said that his country “will soon bring security and peace to the east of the Euphrates River as we have already did in other areas in Syria.”
President Erdoğan stressed that Ankara will “clear” the remnants of ISIS from Syria, which he said were “deliberately left there and trained against Turkey.” He noted that the Western countries sought to fight ISIS through arming another terrorist group.
He said that his country “had not only eliminated the terrorists, but had exerted major efforts to reduce the effects of the humanitarian crisis in the conflict areas.”
The establishment of a safe zone in Syria has recently returned to the forefront following announcement by the United States that it will withdraw its troops from Syria. Turkey is seeking to establish a safe zone and clear it of all terrorist groups as it stressed that it will not wait forever to establish this area and that it stood ready to establish it on its own. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
