NATO chief welcomes German proposal for safe zone in NE Syria

"It is important that we continue exploring all means to achieve a sustainable solution on the ground (in northeast Syria). In this respect, I welcome the proposal from the German defense minister for a safe zone and increased international involvement" there, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Friday.

During the wrapping-up press conference of a two-day NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) defense ministers' meeting, Stoltenberg said: "we need to build more lasting and sustainable solutions for Syria."

"There still remains some work to be done to collect the necessary political support. The present situation in northern Syria is not sustainable and the international community has the responsibility to try to address all the challenges that we see and therefore I welcome the initiative and idea about how we can do it in a coordinated way as an international community," he said.

At the meeting, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer presented her proposal for an "internationally monitored security safe zone in northeast Syria" to be "ideally" mandated by the United Nations, local media Euractiv reported.

"The status quo is not a satisfactory solution," she told reporters before her first appearance among NATO colleagues, insisting that the task of patrolling the Turkish-Syrian border should not be left to Russia and Turkey alone, Euractiv reported.

The two-day meeting set the stage for a meeting of NATO leaders in London slated for December.

The past weeks have seen an "encouraging surge of diplomatic activity" on northeast Syria, though some uncertainties remain, Mohamed Khaled Khiari, United Nations assistant secretary-general for the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific, said on Thursday.

The security situation in Syria remains extremely volatile, nevertheless, on Oct. 17, Turkey and the United States announced an agreement on a 120-hour break-in Turkey's operation, Khiari told the Security Council.

A Chinese envoy on Thursday called for greater humanitarian assistance throughout Syria, lifting economic sanctions and promoting the return of refugees and displaced persons.

The Syrian crisis has dragged on for many years and must be addressed in a holistic and integrated manner, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council in a meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)