Escalating clashes between Syrian and Turkish forces may have unpredictable consequences

"The vicious circle of violence and suffering in Syria must be broken," the UN Secretary-General said on Friday, referring to repeated fighting in the northwest of the country between Turkish and Syrian government forces, the latter supported by the Russian air force.

During a meeting with the media accredited to the Organization, António Guterres stressed that, if the current dynamics continue, with a devastating humanitarian and military situation, the situation may escalate to unsuspected limits.

"For almost a year we have seen a series of ground offensives by the Syrian Government supported by Russian air strikes. This month there have been repeated deadly clashes between Turkish and Syrian forces. All this means that, in addition to a dramatic and deteriorating humanitarian situation, we face the risk of an increasingly serious confrontation with increasingly unpredictable consequences," he said.

Guterres recalled that the Idlib buffer zone was established in 2017 and was the subject of a new agreement between the Russian Federation and Turkey in September 2018, through the Sochi memorandum.

"However, at the end of February 2019 the agreement began to falter, despite several extensions of the ceasefire in the following months, the most recent on 12 January," he clarified.

After recalling his repeated requests to key players, publicly and directly, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Idlib "to end the humanitarian catastrophe and now also to avoid an uncontrollable escalation," he reiterated once again that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria. "The only possible solution is political," he added.

The UN head recalled that, since 1 December last year, the conflict has forced the displacement of some 900,000 people, most of them women and children, and that the fighting is moving towards areas where large numbers of people are concentrated, including many displaced persons.

"As safe spaces are reduced, the potential for human suffering increases," he noted.
He estimated the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in northwest Syria at 2.8 million, and his estimates for emergency aid have fallen significantly short due to the magnitude of the crisis.

"Earlier this month we thought we would have to deal with 800,000 people displaced by the recent and continuing violence.  Now, we need something much bigger. We are reviewing our plans and will launch an urgent appeal to donors for an additional $500 million to cover the needs of the newly displaced over the next six months," he said.