Germany Doing Everything Possible To Ease Tensions In Syria's Idlib - Foreign Minister

Germany Doing Everything Possible to Ease Tensions in Syria's Idlib - Foreign Minister

Germany is resorting to all the existing measures to influence all parties involved in the escalating situation in northwestern Syria to stop the violence in Idlib province, in particular, from getting worse, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday at a press conference after meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud

BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st February, 2020) Germany is resorting to all the existing measures to influence all parties involved in the escalating situation in northwestern Syria to stop the violence in Idlib province, in particular, from getting worse, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday at a press conference after meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

During phone talks on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron expressed their readiness to convene a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss easing tensions in Idlib.

"The situation in Idlib is more than a concern. What is happening there is a disaster, it affects millions of people. We together with our European partners are trying to influence the parties involved, especially Russia, as well as the Turkish partners," Maas said, adding that Berlin was using all tools at its disposal for this purpose.

The minister also said that Germany was not militarily involved in the conflict and wanted to focus more on humanitarian assistance, working within the United Nations, and exerting diplomatic influence, in particular, through the European Union.

"We will talk about this within the EU at the next meeting of the EU Council at the level of foreign ministers, about how the situation will develop further," Maas added.

He also expressed hope that the situation in the province would stabilize over the next three weeks.

Tensions in Idlib, one of four de-escalation zones in Syria, intensified earlier in February after the Turkish Defense Ministry said that its military personnel died in shelling initiated by Syrian troops on Turkey's observation post in the province. The Turkish president pledged to take retaliatory measures if Syria's armed forces failed to stop their operation and withdraw from the areas close to the observation posts by the end of February. Erdogan also asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to pressure the Syrian government into stopping the Idlib offensive.