The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that he rejects any foreign presence in the Syrian territory in principle, during a meeting on Sunday to discuss the Syrian crisis during the 2019 Munich Security Conference.
The meeting was held in the presence of the Lebanese and Turkish ministers of defence, the US envoy to Syria, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, as well as the UN envoy to Syria, according to spokesperson of the Arab League, Mahmoud Afifi.
Aboul Gheit urged that returning to the Adana Agreement is the best solution to the situation in northern Syria after the US’ withdrawal, especially that the agreement will to respond to the Turkish security concerns without prejudice to the regional integration in Syria.
He also suggested that the disputes between the US and Russia on the international level impact the possibilities to settle the Syrian crisis, however, the Iranian behaviour is a substantial problem affecting Syria as well as the region.
As for the controversial calls of the US President Donald Trump’s calls to repatriate the hundreds of Islamic State (IS) fighters from Syria, the French Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, said on Monday that her country currently rejects this demand, and will respond to it.
On Saturday, Trump called the European allies to take back more than 800 alleged militants with European nationalities captured in Syria and put them on trial.
“The US is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 ISIS fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them,” Trump said on his Twitter account.
Meanwhile, Germany has replied to Trump’s call, as the German Interior Ministry’s spokesperson, Eleonore Peterman, saying, “In principle, all German citizens and those suspected of having fought for the so-called IS have the right to return, and Germany can take back the IS fighters captured in Syria only if the suspects have a consular access.”
Last December, Trump announced his plan to withdraw US troops from Syria, arguing that the IS group has been defeated.
