Western airstrikes on Syrian President Bashar Assad could lead to “serious clashes” between the United States and Russia, a senior Turkish official warned Wednesday.
“If an attack occurs against the forces [in Syria] backed by Russia or there is an attack by the U.S.-supported forces, Russia won’t be able to stay away, otherwise it will lose its influence,” Turkish National Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said, per TASS, a Russian-run media outlet. “So, serious clashes may start.”
Canikli made those comments as the world braces for an expected strike by the United States and western allies against Assad’s regime, in response to a major chemical weapons attack that humanitarian groups reported took place Saturday. The United Nations Security Council failed to agree to a plan for investigating the attacks, after Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted proposal and the Russian alternative received just 6 of the council’s 15 votes.
“Just one spark may set the entire region on fire and open the door for the conflict. So, we are calling on the parties [Russia and the US] to act with restraint and on the regime [of Assad] to stop supporting terrorist organizations,” Canikli said.
Those remarks echo the sentiments of the top U.N. official responsible for diplomacy related to the Syria crisis. “I am expressing a concern about international security — not only regional, or national, or Syrian security,” Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, told the Security Council on Monday. “The council cannot allow a situation of uncontrollable escalation to develop in Syria, on any front; instead it must find unity and address the complete threats to international peace and security in Syria today.”
Those efforts failed, leaving Trump with the choice of acquiescing to the growing use of chemical weapons or authorizing military strikes that could prompt a Russian response in defense of their ally.
“The United Russia party conscientiously states that all political, diplomatic and military measures, if necessary, will be taken,” Vladimir Shamanov, a defense committee chairman in the Russian legislature’s lower house, said Tuesday. “We won’t let the Americans hammer nails on someone else’s anvil.”
Turkey occupies a unique space in the crisis, as a member of NATO that has developed a close relationship with Russia due to disagreements with the United States over how to handle the Syria crisis.
“The Syrian regime must give account for the attacks in various regions of the country at different times,” Ibrahim Kalin, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Sunday. “The entire international community, primarily countries that have an influence on the Syrian regime, has a responsibility to take the necessary steps in order to prevent similar war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
