Turkey called on Tuesday for a ground operation with its international allies to end the war in Syria, as a UN envoy held talks in Damascus aimed at salvaging an increasingly beleaguered cease-fire plan. Tensions escalated over Russia's air war in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with Ankara branding the bombing "barbaric" and EU President Donald Tusk saying it "leaves little hope" of a solution.
Turkey sees the ouster of Assad as essential to ending a five-year conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people, and is highly critical of Iran and Russia over their support for the Damascus regime. "We want a ground operation with our international allies," a senior Turkish official told reporters in Istanbul, adding such an operation would require the involvement of the United States and Gulf states.
"There is not going to be a unilateral military operation from Turkey to Syria," the official emphasised, but added: "Without a ground operation it is impossible to stop the fighting in Syria." Analysts fear that any ground incursion by Turkey and its Nato allies could lead to a dangerous confrontation with Russia. Saudi Arabia, another fierce critic of Assad, has said it is ready to send special forces to Syria to take part in ground operations against the Islamic State (IS) group.
Turkey and Syria analyst Aaron Stein said the declarations did not mark a new strategy for Ankara, adding that Turkey would be hard pressed to commit ground troops. "This latest talk about a Turkish ground operation is a reiteration of long-standing Turkish policy," said Stein, non-resident Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East "It is unlikely that Turkey will put ground troops in Syria," he said, noting that Turkey would want both UN Security Council approval and US support.
The United Nations said Monday that nearly 50 civilians, including children, had died in the bombings of at least five medical facilities and two schools in northern Syria.
The region around Syria's second city of Aleppo has been the target of a major anti-rebel offensive by Syrian government troops, backed by Russian warplanes, which has sent tens of thousands fleeing to the Turkish border. Russia denied it had bombed any hospital, calling such reports "unsubstantiated accusations". UN envoy Staffan de Mistura met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Damascus Tuesday to try to keep alive the proposal announced in Munich Friday for a "cessation of hostilities" in Syria within a week. "We have been particularly talking about the issue of humanitarian unhindered access to all besieged areas not only by the government but also by (the) opposition" and IS, De Mistura told reporters afterwards.