NATO is not agree with Turkish occupation in Rojava

by Roni Alasor

Brussels, 21 January 2019 - Middle East Diplomatic - Speaking in the EU Parliament, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told that NATO is not agree with Turkish occupation in North East Syria/Rojava.

After many questions and critics from Members of the EU Parliament (MEPs) on Turkish war against Nord East Syria/Rojava, intervention in Libya war and provocative activities in the Mediterranean Sea particularly against Cyprus, Mr Stoltenberg said that "Right after the Turkish military attack in Nord East Syria, I travelled immediately to Turkey where I met Turkish president Erdogan and I told him openly that we are deeply concerned of this military attack. I said also to reduce military tensions. Some days later we had an agreement between US and Turkey, despite that still there are some problems remains, but at the least fighting gone significance down. We have to build in that because we believe that only solutions of problems in whole Syria is political dialogue and peaceful solution. This also not secret that there are different opinions between NATO members regarding the situation of the Nord Syria".

NATO Chief also underlined that it’s crucial NATO and Western allies keep their position in the Middle East and help the regional partners in war against ISIS terror.

“ISIS has been stopped now, but if we dont continue to help he local partners, ISIS can come back again. Therefore prevention is better than intervention. If we don’t react in Iraq now, we risk going into a combat”, he said discussing the security situation in Europe and the world with MEPs from the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE), and Delegation for relations with NATO Parliamentary Assembly (DNAT).

According Mr Stoltenberg, NATO will bring together the EU and the US to address three issues of concern: terrorism, relations with Russia, and new and emerging challenges such as artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons platforms, and big data.

The importance of building global capacity by enabling local forces in the fight against terrorism, instead of solely relying on NATO combat operations was also high agenda. Regarding current efforts in Afghanistan, Jordan, Tunisia, and, especially, Iraq and relations with Russia, the NATO chief underlined the importance of maintaining a dialogue between the US and Russia in order to achieve results in arms control.