France has called for a United Nations Security Council meeting over “humanitarian risks” as fighting escalates in Syria, its foreign minister said on Sunday in Algiers.
“France is very preoccupied by the situation in Syria and by the brutal degradation of the situation,” Jean-Yves Le Drian says.
“This is why we have called for a Security Council meeting to evaluate all the humanitarian risks, which are very serious,” he says on the sidelines of a meeting for western Mediterranean countries.
Turkish-backed fighters from the Free Syrian Army stand in the Tal Malid area, north of Aleppo, as they fire towards Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions in the village of Um al-Hosh, in the area of Afrin, on January 20, 2018. (AFP Photo/Nazeer al-Khatib)
His comments came after Turkish forces on Saturday launched an operation to oust Kurdish militia from the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin.
Le Drian spoke to his Turkish counterpart in a telephone call on Sunday morning, his staff said.
At the same time, French Defense Minister Florence Parly is pressing Turkey to stop its offensive against Kurdish militia fighting in Syria, saying the militants were a key ally against terrorism in the war-torn country.
“This fighting… must stop,” Parly tells France 3 television, adding that the Turkish offensive could “deter Kurdish forces who are at the side” of the international coalition battling jihadists in Syria.
— AFP
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