BEIRUT, LEBANON (7:15 P.M.) – The Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister, Stef Blok, called for a no-fly-zone over the Syrian governorate of Idlib in the northwestern part of the country.
According to the Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister:
“The scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in the Syrian province of Idlib is scarcely imaginable. A million people, most of them children, have fled towards the Turkish border, which has already been hosting about 3.5 million Syrian refugees for many years now.
Many people in this new wave of refugees had already been displaced within Syria and ended up in Idlib. Since the Sochi agreements in 2018, a fragile truce of sorts has been in effect in Idlib, but with its military offensive the regime in Damascus has chosen to consign this truce to the scrapheap.
Now these same people have to flee once more from the violence of this regime, whose actions are backed politically and militarily by Russia and Iran. It is no surprise that Ankara says that taking in another million refugees is more than it can manage. And this is increasing the migratory pressure on Europe.”
He also called on Europe to step up their efforts in support of Turkey, who is currently conducting a military operation inside of Syria.
Blok concluded by pushing for the U.N. Security Council to reach a consensus on the matter so that the bloodshed in Idlib reaches an end.
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