WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Establishing safe zones in Syria as proposed by US President Donald Trump will not settle the Syrian conflict, former Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Ana Palacio told Sputnik.
"The Syria conundrum you are not going to solve it by creating safe zones," Palacio said on Thursday.
On Wednesday evening, Trump said in an interview with ABC News that he plans to create safe zones for civilians in Syria.
She also argued any positive initiative is welcome and should be discussed.
"The Devil is in the details. I am not saying that this is not a good initiative. It’s just that we have to study it," Palacio stated.
Trump emphasized the option was preferable to letting millions of refugees into Europe or the United States, having previously characterized the EU approach of accepting millions of refugees a "disaster."
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump's administration has not consulted with Russia on the issue, and added that Washington should consider all the possible consequences of establishing safe zones in Syria.
Both Russia and the United States have been involved in trying to settle the Syrian conflict over the past year after Moscow started a counterterrorism aerial campaign toward the end of 2015.
Turkey, which also got involved in the settlement effort more recently, intervened in northern Syria in August 2016. The Turkish authorities said the aim of the operation was to clear the region from terrorists and make it a safety zone for refugees. The Turkish operation has been widely criticized both by the Syrian government and the country’s Kurds.
