US Secretary of Defense: We will Not Give Air Support to Turkey

* Photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Archive

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United States (US) Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Mark Milley addressed the reporters in the Pentagon Briefing Room yesterday (March 2).

"The US is looking at providing increased humanitarian aid for the persons in Syria", said Esper, who was also asked whether the US would give air support to Turkey in Idlib. Esper answered this question with "No".

Mark Esper was also asked a question on "what the US would do if Turkey invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty in Syria."

Indicating that "he was not going to speculate on Article 5 at that point in time", Esper said, "Turkey obviously is engaged in combat operations over there, and we will take it one step at a time.

"I had a brief conversation with [NATO] Secretary General Stoltenberg with regard to this matter. And like I said, as an alliance, we take this one step at a time so that we are prepared for what may happen."

Responding to the same question, General Milley also stated, "We do not have clear unambiguous intelligence on exactly who was flying what planes. I personally called my counterparts in Turkey and in Russia and urged de-escalation as rapidly as possible."

'Turkey is going to make that decision'

Following the Idlib attack that claimed the lives of Turkey's 34 soldiers in northwestern Syria, the country announced that it would no longer stop refugees from trying to reach Europe. Since then, several refugees have been heading to borders to leave Turkey for Europe.

Accordingly, responding to a question on Turkey's opening of its border gates for the passage of refugees, Esper said, "Turkey is going to make that decision. My conversation with the defense minister last week was to share with him our support for Turkey as a NATO ally and member.

"Obviously, at the political level, they need to decide what they're going to do with regard to their borders. That involves the E.U. and their neighbor countries, and they've got to work their way through that with them." (EKN/SD)