Posted on 10/17/2019 7:54:37 AM PDT by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
EU diplomats stood alone against the US and Russia on Syria at the UN on Thursday (10 October), painting a bleak picture of transatlantic relations.
EU envoys to the UN Security Council (UNSC), from Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Poland, and the UK spoke to press in New York after the US and Russia blocked an EU-drafted UN resolution on the conflict.
The German ambassador, Jurgen Schulz, read out the EU statement anyway.
"We call upon Turkey to cease the unilateral military action," Schulz said, as the Turkish military bombarded Kurdish positions in northern Syria and Kurdish artillery fired on Turkish towns on the other side of the border.
The Turkish offensive would create "fertile ground for the resurgence of Da'esh" in a "significant threat to regional, international, and European security", Schulz added, referring to an Islamist militant group that is also known as Isis.
It would "exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements which will further increase the number of refugees," Schulz said.
The call was echoed in Paris, where French president Emmanuel Macron said Turkey was "putting millions of people at humanitarian risk", and in Rome, where Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio "condemned" Turkey's actions.
But back in New York, the US ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, and the Russian envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, took a different line.
The US did not ask Turkey to stop, although Craft did say, in her own press briefing, that: "Failure [by Turkey] to play by the rules, to protect vulnerable populations, failure to guarantee that Isis cannot exploit these actions to reconstitute, will have consequences".
Russia, wielding its 14th UNSC veto to date on the Syria war, said it did not endorse the EU statement because it did not "speak about the illegal military presence in that country and the need to terminate it immediately", referring to European and US coalition forces.
The Kurds had fought against Isis alongside Western special forces and air power. They had also fought against the Russia-backed Syrian regime.
But Nebenzia mocked them for having been abandoned by the West. "As you know they [the Kurds] preferred other protectors [than Russia]. And now - well, you see what is happening," he said.
Russia stands to gain from the debacle by being left free to turn Syria into its Mediterranean protectorate.
It also stands to gain if there is a new exodus of refugees or Isis militants to Europe, fomenting tension inside its geopolitical adversary.
The startling image of America standing with Russia against the EU at the UNSC comes after three years of fraying transatlantic relations under US president Donald Trump.
It comes after he said, earlier this week, he did not care if Isis fighters went to Europe.
It also comes after he abandoned the EU on an Iran nuclear arms deal, on the two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and on free trade and climate change.
But his latest snub did little to cement European unity.
The UK's ambassador to the UN, Karen Pierce, equivocated the EU position in New York, as Britain sought closer US ties in the context of Brexit.
She called for Turkish "restraint" instead of cessation of hostilities.
"We admire all the efforts Turkey has made in a humanitarian crisis. It has been a heroic effort," she added.
Peter Szijjarto, the foreign minister of Hungary, which has close ties with Russia, said the EU should stop its "competition who can bash the Turkish president more".
"We need a constructive dialogue with Turkey to avoid a situation when an additional migratory flow arrives to Europe," he told the Reuters news agency in Budapest. Misaligned
Turkey, an EU accession candidate and a Nato member, is also meant to be on Europe's side.
"If Turkey is serious about its ambitions [to join the EU]" then it must "align" itself with EU foreign policy, the European Commission said on Thursday.
It spoke after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once again, threatened to "open the gates to Europe" for the 3.6m Syrian refugees in Turkey if the EU did not curtail criticism.
Turkey says Kurdish forces in Syria pose a security threat due to their links with Kurdish separatists in Turkey.
The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, also accused France, a former colonial power in the region, of wanting to partition Syria.
For its part, the UN refugee agency warned that "hundreds of thousands of civilians in northern Syria are now in harm's way".
A coalition of 14 aid NGOs said 450,000 people were "at risk".
Considering that the EU consists of the same mental midgets as our Democrat congress, please consider the fact that no sane person gives a s*** about what they say or do.
If the EU is so concern, why don’t put their people in Norther Syria on the border as trip wire?
Why is Turkey still a NATO Member?
Grammar correction:
If the EU is so concern, why don’t they put their people in Northern Syria on the border as trip wire?
It’s time for the EU to put up or shut up. The Eu’s military strength is a joke. They cannot intimidate anyone.
Turkey has zero right to go after Kurds on the other side of their own sovereign border. Zero.
But despite the fact that we were against the Assad regime, Russia played a big part in removing ISIS from Syria and it doesn’t look like Assad is going anywhere. There is no point for us to be policing an unstable ‘nation’ in another hemisphere for decades when there are others who have it in their backyard and should take some responsibility.
If the EU doesn’t have a solution, they need to STFU
Turkey should unleash all the migrants they are holding and send them on their way to Germany. Let the EU and their precious UN deal with that for a while.
Muslims in a Christian security organization makes no sense, other than to empower muslims with western Technology and know how.
Turkey should unleash all the migrants they are holding and send them on their way to Germany. Let the EU and their precious UN deal with that for a while.
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Why the hell would you wish that on Europe?
The EU is in NATO.
Turkey is in NATO.
Why can’t the EU get their ally to behave according to the EU wishes?
We will gladly sell them the weapons. But we have grown tired of American flag draped coffins arriving at Dover AFB.
Wow. A constructive dialogue they want.
Erdogan must be shaking in his boots. Oh the Horror, hours of harangues from EU-rocrats.
He’ll get back to them right after the next wave of bombers go in.
This is after years of the EU (AKA, Germany) refusing to participate in any meaningful way.
Now they act shocked at the suggestion tha the USA won’t prevent the return of their jihadists to their countries, from a third countriy, so they can continue to pose as morally superior, tolerant people, above the use of violence.
The U.K., and especially France, have been distinguished in really standing up to ISIS, and taking them on with their own Military.
The rest of the EU can put up, or shut up.
Send enough of your own troops in to do whatever job you intend Europe.
What you are doing isn’t called “standing” it’s called “cringing and whining.”
Send those scary Swedes , French , Belgiums, and Danes to the front lines .
Love to see that result.
Didn’t Erdogan already tell the EU to shut up, or he’d send them a couple of million more refugees?
Because the European Globalists are enacting the Fabian Socialist depopulation agenda, but if it moves too fast early on it will engender an overthrow of the so called elite while there are still enough Europeans to succeed.
“How dare you” is the only thing the evil EU lends to the world.
Send the brave EU warriors into Syria. I expect the Syrians could use a good laugh.
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