The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is ready to operate in Syria’s safe zones when they are created, however, it is necessary to know the conditions at the scene in order to carry out humanitarian operations, President Peter Maurer told Sputnik in an interview.
“Our point here is only that if we want to be able to operate in those zones, we have to have access. If we want to have safety for people, we also have to listen to people and what they want. People have to be able to go in and out of those safe zones,” Maurer said, adding that it was necessary to know the conditions of work at the scene.
According to Maurer, future safe or de-escalation zones should not become detention centers for people.
“Safe zones, disengagement zones or whatever you call it must not become prisons, in which people are contained, but zones, in which people could can reasonably find safety and life… Our concern is always that all those words suggest safety, while not really providing safety. For us the denomination is not so important. The question is whether the result is a humanitarian space, in which we can move by consensus,” Maurer added.