UN Needs to Order Turks, Foreign Forces to Withdraw from Syria

According to a member of Syria's opposition, United Nations must intervene and have all foreign forces withdraw from Syria.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — The United Nations must order Turkey and other foreign powers out of Syria, a member of the the Syrian Democratic Forum opposition party told Sputnik.

"My hope [is] that [the] UN Security Council will intervene in order for all foreign groups and forces, not only the Turks, [to] withdraw from Syria," Samir Aita said.

He said the UN Security Council should also urge the United States, Russia and other states whose military forces operate in Syria to coordinate their efforts in order to combat the Islamic State (IS or Daesh) militant group.

A US-led international coalition has been attacking IS targets in Syria since September 2014. Russia launched its own air campaign on September 30, 2015. The Islamist group is outlawed in the United States, Russia, and the European Union.

Separately, Turkey has been attacking Kurdish militants in northern Syria and Iraq, despite Kurdish militias being a key US ally in the fight against IS insurgency.

Earlier this week, Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari accused Ankara of attempts to revive the Ottoman "colonial legacy," in a letter to the UN Security Council and UN chief Ban Ki-moon. The Ottoman Empire controlled parts of modern-day Syria in the 16th century.

Aita said the letter sought to draw the UN attention to the fact that world and regional powers had failed to prevent Turkey from intervening into the Syrian affairs.