ISTANBUL: Turkey is aiming to form safe zones in northern Syria so that around 4 million of Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey could return, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
Speaking in Istanbul, Erdogan also said nearly 300,000 Syrians had already returned and that he expected millions of Syrian nationals would return to the safe areas. US President Donald Trump announced in December the withdrawal of all US troops from Syria and Erdogan subsequently said they had discussed setting up a
20-mile-deep safe zone in Syria along the border.
Meanwhile, the new UN special envoy for Syria held talks with the head of the Arab League, whose members appear divided about whether to readmit the war-torn country.
The League, which will hold its annual summit in Tunisia in March, suspended Syria’s membership in November 2011 as the death toll in the country’s civil war mounted.
Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen, who this month become the fourth UN negotiator aiming to resolve the nearly eight-year conflict, met with Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit in Cairo on Sunday, the organisation said.
They discussed the latest talks among Arab states about the organisation’s decisions on Syria since 2011, the League said in a statement. Abul Gheit also pointed to the importance of “reaching a peaceful solution” to the Syrian crisis, it said.
Pedersen was also scheduled to meet with Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry. Several Arab states including Lebanon and Tunisia have recently called for Syria’s return to the Arab League.
In December, Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir made the first visit by any Arab leader to the Syrian capital since 2011, and the United Arab Emirates reopened its embassy in Damascus. In another sign of a diplomatic thaw, the speaker of Jordan’s parliament invited his Syrian counterpart to meetings of the Arab Parliamentary Union in Amman in March, Jordanian state news agency Petra reported on Sunday.
But not all of the League’s members support closer ties with Damascus.
Pedersen stressed the need for a UN-brokered political solution to the war when he visited Damascus after assuming his duties this month following the resignation of his predecessor Staffan de Mistura.
In a statement on Monday, Human Rights Watch accused a Syrian group led by former Al Qaeda fighters of using “torture” against activists opposing their rule.
Hayat Tahrir al Sham earlier this month cemented its control over the northwestern region of Idlib
at the expense of smaller, Turkey-backed outfits.
The New York-based rights group said it documented 11 cases in which HTS “detained Idlib residents, apparently because of their peaceful work documenting abuses or protesting the group’s rule”.
“Six of those detained were apparently tortured,” including a 16-year-old boy, it said in a statement.
“One man described being hung from a pole upside down for hours during interrogation,” it said.
Another said he was locked up in something resembling a coffin for three hours, while a third said he was pushed through a tyre and beaten incessantly in a method infamously used by Syrian security services.
“The maximum you can do is move your shoulders a bit. And scream for help. But on several occasions, they stuffed things in my mouth so I can’t scream,” the detainee told HRW.
“I used to lose my consciousness a lot.” Seven of those interviewed by HRW said they were media activists or journalists who had participated in or covered protests against HTS, or were working with foreign media.
Four were made to sign a document pledging they would no longer film or report on the IS-led alliance.
The rights group called for the immediate release of all unlawfully held prisoners, including four still being held or missing. — Agencies
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