Turkey's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Feridun Sinirlioglu attends a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 11, 2018. Sinirlioglu on Tuesday voiced opposition to the looming offensive on Idlib, Syria, the last rebel-held stronghold in the war-torn country. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Feridun Sinirlioglu on Tuesday voiced opposition to the looming offensive on Idlib, Syria, the last rebel-held stronghold in the war-torn country.
Whether to launch an offensive on Idlib was a major point of divergence at a summit last week involving Russia, Iran and Turkey. Russia and Iran proposed the military option while Turkey, which backs some of the opposition groups in Idlib, opposed it.
"At the summit, President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan underlined the need to preserve the de-escalation area and called for an immediate and complete ceasefire in Idlib," Sinirlioglu told the Security Council meeting. "Our calls for an immediate ceasefire include all military operations and Turkey will continue to work on this basis."
Idlib is the only remaining one of the four de-escalation areas created by the Astana process initiated by the three countries last year in Kazakhstan's capital city Astana.
"In a complex place like Idlib, traditional counter-terrorism methods would not yield the desired results. On the contrary, they would create further suffering, alienate and radicalize more Syrians," Sinirlioglu said.
He also said a military assault on Idlib "would trigger a massive wave of refugees and tremendous security risks for Turkey, the rest of Europe and beyond."
The UN has warned that a military operation in Idlib is likely to put the lives of some 3 million people, including 1 million children, in jeopardy.
"Only a viable ceasefire would allow the creation of an environment to effectively fight terrorism," Sinirlioglu said.
