US-Turkey ‘safe zone’ deal is attack on Syrian sovereignty, could topple peace efforts – Damascus

The Syrian government has bluntly rejected a recent American-Turkish decision to create a so-called safe zone on its soil, promising to appeal to the UN, state media reported.

A joint operations center, which Turkey and the US are about to set up in the north of Syria, is “a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a Foreign Ministry official was cited by state-run news agency SANA as saying. It spells “a dangerous escalation and a threat to peace and stability in the area,” the unnamed diplomat added.

Damascus will raise the issue with the international community and the UN, urging them to condemn the plan which could “topple all efforts to find a way out of the crisis in Syria.” The war-ravaged country repeatedly said that it regards all foreign forces on its territory as “invaders” unless such presence is sanctioned by Bashar Assad’s government.

Turkey’s military and the US embassy in Ankara announced the deal on Wednesday, saying the new facility will work on establishing a “safe zone” and a “peace corridor” to allow refugees to return to Syria.

The US already floated the idea of setting up the secure area to prevent Turkey from cracking down on Kurdish militias – known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – which Ankara considers to be terrorists, but the Turkish government insisted that any safe zone must be free from such forces.

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