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Turkey Says Ground Operation in Syria Is Only Way to Stop War U.N. Says Aid Delivery Near in Syria for 5 Towns
(about 7 hours later)
ISTANBUL — Turkey amplified the big-power tensions over the increasingly chaotic war in Syria on Tuesday, saying it is in discussions with allies, including the United States, over collaborating on a military ground operation into northern Syrian territory. UNITED NATIONS — Five days after world powers announced that aid would soon reach starving Syrians trapped behind front lines, the United Nations was still negotiating with the government in Damascus on Tuesday over lifting blockades to humanitarian convoys, announcing by day’s end that it hoped to start sending 80 trucks to deliver food and lifesaving medicines on Wednesday.
A Turkish official who spoke to reporters in Istanbul about the Syrian situation said it was now impossible to halt the war without a ground operation in northern Syria, and that the Turks would not undertake such an operation on their own. The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said in an email that the government had agreed to lift its sieges on five towns, so as to allow aid convoys that have not been permitted to enter for months.
“We are asking coalition partners that there should be a ground operation,” said the official, who was authorized to speak on the condition that he not be identified by name. “We are discussing this with allies.” “It is clear it is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person wherever they are and allow the U.N. to bring humanitarian aid,” Mr. de Mistura said earlier in a statement sent from Damascus, after his meeting with the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem. “Tomorrow we test this.”
While it was unclear how far the discussions have progressed, it appeared unlikely that a ground operation would be mounted. Saudi Arabia has said it would be willing to commit troops, but the United States has repeatedly indicated that it would not. Those towns include Madaya, where aid workers have said two dozen people, including children, have starved to death. United Nations officials said trucks were ready to move Wednesday morning. They also said they planned to deliver aid to the government-held town of Deir al-Ezzor, surrounded by Islamic State militants. Officials would not provide more details, but the only way for such deliveries to succeed is through airdrops.
A ground operation could put American and Russian forces at risk of a direct military confrontation for the first time in the nearly five-year Syria war, even as both Russia and the United States say they are working toward the “cessation of hostilities” called for in a diplomatic agreement reached last week in Munich. The Syrian government’s most senior diplomat at the United Nations, Bashar al-Jaafari, signaled his own disregard for humanitarian agencies when he suggested on Tuesday that the medical aid group, Doctors Without Borders, had brought airstrikes on itself by helping to establish a hospital in rebel-held northern Syria without any authorization from the Syrian government..
Syrian forces backed by Russian airstrikes have achieved some of their biggest gains in the conflict in recent days, driving insurgents out of their enclaves in northern Syria and advancing in some places to within 15 miles of the Turkish border. The hospital was one of four in northern Syria hit Monday by deadly airstrikes, which were condemned by international relief officials and called a war crime by supporters of the Syrian insurgents, including France.
The Syrian advances have been exploited by Kurdish militants in northern Syria to expand their territory, upsetting the Turkish authorities, who see an immediate threat from the Kurds, their longtime adversaries. “They assume full consequences of the act because they did not consult with the Syrian government and they did not operate with the Syrian government permission,” Mr. Jaafari told reporters.
The chaos on the battlefield was punctuated on Monday by airstrikes that hit four hospitals and a school harboring civilians in rebel-held territory, which the United Nations said had left 50 people dead including children. None of the combatants have taken responsibility for the airstrikes, but the targets were in areas under increased attack by Syrian and Russian forces. Doctors Without Borders said the death toll from the attack on its hospital alone had climbed to 11 on Tuesday. All told, the United Nations said the strikes on the four hospitals and a school harboring civilians in rebel-held territory left 50 dead, including children. None of the combatants have taken responsibility for the airstrikes, but the targets were in areas under increased attack by Syrian and Russian forces.
The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, was in Damascus on Tuesday trying to complete arrangements for aid convoys to reach besieged areas in the country, an important element of the Munich agreement. Mr. Jaafari described the Paris-based wing of Doctors Without Borders as an arm of French intelligence. “They didn’t cooperate with the Syrian government,” Mr. Jaafari added.
Speaking in Damascus alongside the Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, Mr. de Mistura said the convoys would try to deliver aid on Wednesday. He spoke after the Security Council held a meeting, at Russia’s insistence, to discuss Turkey’s military actions inside Syria. Russia said that Turkey had breached a Security Council resolution by carrying out military action without the Syrian government’s consent. The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, Rafael Ramírez Carreño, who presides over the council this month, asserted that “all members of the Security Council are agreed” to asking for Turkey to comply with international law.
“It is clear it is the duty of the government of Syria to want to reach every Syrian person, wherever they are, and allow the U.N. to bring humanitarian aid, particularly now, after so long time,” Mr. de Mistura said. “Tomorrow we test this.” The French ambassador, François Delattre, attributed the latest violence to “the military escalation led by the regime and its allies.”
Turkey began shelling positions inside Syria this past weekend, aiming at Kurdish militants regarded by the Turks as terrorists affiliated with the long-running Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. The Turkish government has expressed anger and frustration over what it calls Kurdish militants’ exploitation of the fighting in northern Syria to seize more territory bordering Turkey.
In Turkey on Tuesday, the government sought to raise the pressure on foreign allies, including the United States, for a ground operation in northern Syria.
A Turkish official who spoke to reporters in Istanbul about the Syrian situation said it was now impossible to halt the war without such an operation.
“We are asking coalition partners that there should be a ground operation,” said the official, who was authorized to speak on the condition that he not be identified by name.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman, Mark C. Toner, said a ground operation “is not on the table.” He also said the American view that Turkey’s shelling of Kurdish positions in Syria should cease and efforts should be made to de-escalate hostilities between the Turks and Kurds.