Turkey, U.S. Agree to Joint Contingency Planning for Collapse of Assad Regime
The United States and Turkey on Saturday took a half step toward intervention in Syria, announcing that the two governments jointly would begin “in depth analysis and operational planning” for a possible no-fly zone.
The countries also will begin drafting plans for how to respond if President Bashar Assad’s regime carries out wide-scale massacres or uses chemical weapons as it battles insurgents seeking its overthrow.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the steps early in a day of hurriedly called talks with top Turkish leaders.
Clinton asked to see top officials here while touring Africa last week, as Syrian rebels battled to seize parts of Aleppo, the country’s most populous city, against a fierce government counterattack that included jets, helicopter and artillery bombardments. Reports from Aleppo last week indicated that the rebels had withdrawn from many of their forward positions after they ran low on ammunition.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, told reporters that the fighting in Aleppo had raised concerns about the possibility of what he called “a gigantic wave of migration” as the violence increases.
Jordan now has between 100,000 and 120,000 Syrian refugees, Turkish officials said. Some 53,000 Syrians have taken shelter in refugee camps in Turkey, with 2,000 more arriving each day. Some 3,500 Syrians are now waiting across the border until Turkey can establish new tent cities to accommodate them, Turkish officials said.