18/02/2020

Sweden calls on European Union to find solution to Idlib crisis

BRUSSELS – In a post of her official Facebook page following her participation in the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Monday, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde called on the European Union to put pressure on the Syrian government, describing the recent attacks on Idlib as terrifying.

Linde stressed the need to put pressure on Damascus to stop its attacks, noting that nearly a million civilians have been displaced from the area due because of air strikes targeting civilians and even hospitals.

As she noted in her post, her country had increased humanitarian aid to the region by 374 million SEK, in addition to 374 million SEK previously allocated to the Syrian crisis this year.

In related news, a diplomatic source in NATO mentioned that NATO does not intend to provide military support to Turkey’s military operation in Syria and that NATO will not support the invocation of Article 5, relating to collective defense, in response to the killing of Turkish soldiers in Syria by the Syrian Arab Army in early February.