French President Emmanuel Macron Monday told his Turkish counterpart that a U.N. Security Council call at the weekend for a ceasefire across Syria also applied to Syria’s Afrin region.
Turkey deployed police special forces to the northwestern Syrian region of Afrin Monday for a “new battle” in its five-week campaign against the Kurdish YPG militia.
“The President of the Republic stressed that the humanitarian truce applied to all of Syria, including Afrin, and should be implemented everywhere and by all without any delay to stop the ongoing spiral of violence that could lead to a regional explosion and push away any hope of a political solution,” Macron’s office said in a statement.
Macron told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call Monday morning that France’s monitoring of humanitarian access and chemical weapons was “total and permanent”.
The Security Council voted unanimously to demand a 30-day truce to allow for aid access and medical evacuations. Yet while Moscow backed adopting the resolution, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia cast doubt on its feasibility.
Macron also told Erdogan that he was worried about recent events off the coast of Cyprus, stressing “the need to respect Cyprus’ sovereignty”, the statement said.