U.N.'s Grandi: Syria 'not place' for safe zones

Refugee chief sees Trump’s idea putting people in peril

Filippo Grandi, the head of U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, gestures Friday as he speaks during a news conference in Beirut.
Filippo Grandi, the head of U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, gestures Friday as he speaks during a news conference in Beirut.

BEIRUT -- The United Nations' top official on refugees pushed back against a proposed initiative that has gained recent traction to create "safe zones" in Syria for refugees, saying the country was "not the right place" for the initiative.

"Let's not waste time planning safe zones that will not be set up because they will not be safe for people to go back," said Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. "Let us concentrate on making peace so that everywhere becomes safe. That should be the investment."

President Donald Trump has floated the idea of safe zones as a substitute for resettling refugees in the United States and elsewhere around the globe.

The president explored schemes with Jordanian King Abdullah II in a face-to-face meeting in Washington on Thursday. Jordan is set to host to some 650,000 Syrian refugees.

Turkey and Lebanon, which both border Syria, are also pushing for safe zones across their borders. The two countries host 3.75 million refugees between them.

Grandi cited terrorism and the fragmentation of Syria and its warring parties as obstacles to creating working safe zones in the country.

The government in Damascus has expressed its deep concern over the various proposals, saying they would have to be set up in coordination with the Syrian government.

Trump put the international refugee system into a crisis last week when he issued an executive order forbidding refugees to enter the U.S. for 120 days.

Grandi called the executive order a "dangerous weakening" of the established international norms to protect refugees.

He spoke in Beirut a day after returning from a field mission to Syria. He said the war-torn country was "devastated" and likened many urban zones to "ghost cities."

"These are people that flee from danger, they are not dangerous themselves," he said of refugees. The six-year-long war has displaced half the country's population.

Grandi criticized the U.S. and Western nations for "not doing enough" to share the burden of resettling Syrian refugees.

"[Lebanon] hosted more than 1 million people in the last three years. Why can't rich countries host even a much smaller number?" he said.

Meanwhile, Turkey hosted talks with Syrian opposition members on Friday ahead of U.N.-backed negotiations with the Damascus government in Geneva later this month.

Participants included political and military representatives of the Syrian opposition such as Riad Hijab of the High Negotiations Committee, and Syrian National Coalition President Anas al-Abdah, according to Turkish Foreign Ministry officials.

Those attending denounced "federalism" as a solution for war-torn Syria and spoke out against a "new constitution, autonomy and federalism." They also affirmed that those opposing Syria's unity have no place in Geneva, according to Turkish officials who requested anonymity in line with government regulations.

A Syrian Kurdish group recently in Moscow had proposed creating federal units in Syria to resolve the war. Turkey regards the Syrian Kurds as an extension of its own Kurdish insurgency.

Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement that the Russian embassy in the Syrian capital Damascus had come under shelling from a rebel-controlled suburb of Damascus both Thursday and Friday, but no one has been hurt. It said one mortar round fell inside the compound and another exploded near the embassy's main entrance, inflicting unspecified damage.

The ministry described the "treacherous" shelling as an attempt to derail a truce brokered by Russia and Turkey and hurt peace efforts.

The Russian military also said its long-range bombers had raided positions of the Islamic State group in eastern Syria, the latest in a series of such strikes over the past two weeks.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Tu-22M3 bombers flew from their base in Russia to strike Islamic State weapons depots near al-Mayadin in the province of Deir el-Zour Friday. It was the sixth such raid in the area since Jan. 21.

Elsewhere in Syria, opposition activists said Friday that U.S.-led coalition aircraft were behind airstrikes that destroyed the main pipeline supplying water to the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State, as well as two bridges linking it with the southern countryside.

The coalition has been targeting the Islamic State in the area for more than two years and U.S.-backed Kurdish-led fighters have been on the offensive in nearby areas, mostly north of Raqqa.

In a statement Friday, the U.S.-led coalition said it carried out 21 strikes near Raqqa, destroying 53 oil barrels, 39 oil storage tanks, four oil wellheads, four tunnel entrances and two tunnels, as well as damaging eight supply routes. It didn't provide further details. There was no immediate word about targeting the water pipeline.

State-run Syrian Arab News Agency and an Islamic State-affiliated website said early Friday that the city's main water pipeline was damaged in an airstrike. It added that two other bridges outside of the city were also hit.

Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue, Suzan Fraser, Dominique Soguel and Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press.

A Section on 02/04/2017

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