German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed support for Russia’s actions in Syria, Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten reported.
Commenting on the ongoing war in Syria and the looming operation in Idlib, Merkel told RTL that it was necessary to “make attempts” to fight radical forces, “but at the same time to protect civilians, which will be a very big, important task.”
The chancellor further revealed that she had discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and also stressing the need to “avoid a humanitarian catastrophe” in the war-torn country.
According to Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten, the counterterrorism operation has been complicated by the fact that militants are using civilians as human shields, and have shifted the battle to inhabited areas.
Meanwhile, Merkel’s statements somewhat echoed US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s earlier remarks when he suggested that the US hoped to resolve the tense situation diplomatically.
“It is not the way to do that [fight terrorism] to put the lives of all these innocent civilians at risk and create a humanitarian crisis and I think that’s what you saw the president [Donald Trump] saying last night was we’re happy to work on the terrorism issue in this place… We are hoping that this can be resolved diplomatically,” Pompeo said.
Idlib, which was designated as one of Syria’s de-escalation zones, remains the last hotbed of terrorists in the country. The situation in the province has further deteriorated with Moscow and Damascus saying that militants are plotting a false-flag chemical attack against civilians in the area to blame it on the Syrian government and thus prompt a new round of Western airstrikes against the country.
Source: Sputnik
