REUTERS-President Donald
Trump's push to create safe zones in Syria could force him to make some risky
decisions about how far to go to protect refugees, including
shooting down
Syrian or Russian aircraft or committing thousands of U.S. troops, experts
said.
Trump said on
Wednesday he "will absolutely do safe zones in Syria" for refugees
fleeing violence. According to a document seen by Reuters, he is expected in
the coming days to order the Pentagon and the State Department to draft a plan
to create such zones in Syria and nearby nations.
The document
did not spell out what would make a safe zone "safe" and whether it
would protect refugees only from threats on the ground - such as jihadist
fighters - or whether Trump envisions a no-fly zone policed by America and its
allies.
If it is a
no-fly zone, without negotiating some agreement with Russia Trump would have to
decide whether to give the U.S. military the authority to shoot down Syrian or
Russian aircraft if they posed a threat to people in that zone, which his
predecessor, former President Barack Obama, refused to do.
"This
essentially boils down to a willingness to go to war to protect refugees,"
said Jim Phillips, a Middle East expert at the Heritage Foundation think-tank
in Washington, noting Russia's advanced air defenses.
Trump promised
during his campaign to target jihadists from Islamic State, and he has sought
to avoid being dragged deeper into Syria's conflict - raising the question of
whether he might be satisfied by assurances, perhaps from Moscow, that neither
Russian nor Syrian jets would target the zone.
In Moscow,
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump did not consult with Russia and
warned that the consequences of such a plan "ought to be weighed up."
"It is
important that this (the plan) does not exacerbate the situation with
refugees," he said.
Phillips and
other experts, including former U.S. officials, said many refugees would not be
satisfied by assurances from Moscow, while any deal with Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad, who also is backed by Iran, might not go over well with
America's Arab allies.
The Pentagon
declined comment on Thursday, saying no formal directive to develop such plans
had been handed down yet, and some U.S. military officials appeared unaware of
the document before seeing it described in the media on Wednesday.
"Our
department right now is tasked with one thing in Syria, and that is to degrade
and defeat ISIS," said Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.
TENS OF
THOUSANDS OF TROOPS
Trump's call
for a plan for safe zones is part of a larger directive expected to be signed
in coming days that includes a temporary ban on most refugees to the United
States and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle
Eastern and African countries deemed to pose a terrorism threat.
During and
after the presidential campaign, Trump called for no-fly zones to harbor Syrian
refugees as an alternative to allowing them into the United States. Trump
accused the Obama administration of failing to screen Syrian immigrants
entering the United States to ensure they had no militant ties.
Any safe zone
in Syria guaranteed by the United States would almost certainly require some
degree of U.S. military protection. Securing the ground alone would require
thousands of troops, former U.S. officials and experts say.
Anthony
Cordesman, a military expert at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies think tank, cautioned that a safe zone inside Syria could become a
diplomatic albatross that would force a Trump administration to juggle a host
of ethnic and political tensions in Syria indefinitely.
Other experts
said jihadists could be attracted to the zone, either to carry out attacks that
would embarrass the United States or to use the zone as a safe haven where
militants could regroup.
Such a zone
also would be expensive, given the need to house, feed, educate and provide
medical care to the refugees.
"I think
these people really have no idea what it takes to support 25,000 people, which
is really a small number, in terms of the (internally displaced) and refugees"
in Syria, Cordesman said.
The draft
document gave no details on what would constitute a safe zone, where one might
be set up and who would defend it.
Jordan, Turkey
and other neighboring countries already host millions of Syrian refugees. The
Turkish government pressed Obama, without success, to create a no-fly zone on
Syria's border with Turkey but now is at odds with Washington over its support
for Kurdish fighters in Syria.
REUTERS
0 Comments