The situation in northeast Syria has largely stabilized, but the United States expects turmoil there when refuges begin to resettle in the coming months, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2019) The situation in northeast Syria has largely stabilized, but the United States expects turmoil there when refuges begin to resettle in the coming months, US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said in a congressional hearing on Wednesday."My current assessment that situation generally stabilized in northeast Syria," Esper told the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
Esper urged watching very carefully the developments on the ground and said he predicts "some kind of turmoil" will occur when refugees return to the area.
"It is beginning to happen now," Esper said.
The US Defense Secretary said he assesses that Turkey is beginning to resettle about three million internally displaced persons.
On Tuesday, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said the United Nations cannot confirm that Turkey has started the process of resettling refugees in northern Syria and emphasizes that such a movement must be voluntary.
More than five million people have fled Syria and some six million have become internally displaced since the beginning of the conflict there in 2011, according to the United Nations.
