Syrian Coalition Urges NATO to Endorse the Establishment of a Safe Zone in Northern Syria

Press Statement

Khaled Khoja

President of the Syrian Coalition

July 28, 2015

I welcome the recently announced initiative by Turkey to directly tackle the threat posed by ISIL and the root cause of extremism – the Assad regime – on the Syrian Turkish border, including through the establishment of a safe zone in northern Syria.

A safe zone is a significant first step towards ensuring the urgently needed protection of civilians across the entire country. I, therefore, urge NATO partners at today’s emergency meeting in Brussels to support the establishment of such a zone in northern Syria to ensure civilians are protected from ISIL's terror and the Assad regime’s indiscriminate aerial bombardment, the leading killer of Syrian civilians.

I also urge our NATO partners to consider new effective mechanisms to implement a comprehensive approach that tackles the threat of both ISIL and its root cause, the Assad regime, which remain the greatest threat to regional and international security and the main obstacle to a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

The Syrian Coalition continues to ramp up its support to local groups on the ground to ensure that effective moderate civilian governance takes hold across Syria and that basic services are maintained, including the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need.