United States and Europe should step in to save Syria’s Idlib - columnist

The United States and the European Union should take concrete steps to stop the Syrian government offensive on Idlib, the country’s last rebel-held province, Burhanettin Duran, general coordinator of an influential think tank known to be close to Turkey's ruling party, wrote for Daily Sabah.

Syrian President Bashar Assad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have been striving to cripple the West by creating a new wave of refugees with attacks on Idlib, said Duran, general coordinator of the Foundation for Political, Social and Economic Research (SETA).

"They want to create a mess that will undermine European democracies. To stop them, Washington and Brussels have to act and mount pressure on Moscow," he said.

Idlib is tightly crammed with more than 3 million inhabitants, many of whom are civilians who fled fighting elsewhere in the country, as well as thousands of rebels who have taken refuge in the last province that is still holding out against government forces.

Turkey and Russia signed an agreement to prevent a government attack on Idlib in September 2018 on the condition that Turkey cleared extremist groups from the northern province.

But the Syrian government, backed by Russia, resumed its assault on Idlib in April, saying the continued presence of extremist rebel groups had breached the agreement.

Both the United Nations-backed Syrian peace talks in Geneva and the alternative, Astana peace talks between Turkey, Russia and Iran have reached an impasse and the West should heed a call from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to revitalise efforts to end the war, Duran said.

"To jump-start those negotiations, in that order, the U.S. and the EU need to step up – per Erdoğan's recommendation," he said.