Washington in Talks with NATO to Provide Turkey Military Aid in Syria

FILE PHOTO: James Jeffrey, the US envoy for Syria, is pictured outside the Boynuyogun refugee camp near Hatay, Turkey, March 3, 2020.REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
FILE PHOTO: James Jeffrey, the US envoy for Syria, is pictured outside the Boynuyogun refugee camp near Hatay, Turkey, March 3, 2020.REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
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Washington in Talks with NATO to Provide Turkey Military Aid in Syria

FILE PHOTO: James Jeffrey, the US envoy for Syria, is pictured outside the Boynuyogun refugee camp near Hatay, Turkey, March 3, 2020.REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan
FILE PHOTO: James Jeffrey, the US envoy for Syria, is pictured outside the Boynuyogun refugee camp near Hatay, Turkey, March 3, 2020.REUTERS/Mehmet Emin Caliskan

Washington is discussing with its NATO allies what they can offer Turkey in terms of military assistance in Syria's Idlib, officials said on Tuesday.

It's also discussing measures that may be taken if Russia and the Syrian regime breaks a ceasefire, the officials added.

“We are looking at what NATO can do,” James Jeffrey, the US special envoy for Syria, told reporters in a conference call from Brussels where he was holding talks with allies.

“Everything is on table.”

Jeffrey, who was speaking alongside the US ambassador to Turkey David Satterfield, ruled out the use of ground troops should the ceasefire be broken and repeated that Ankara needed to clarify its stance on purchase of the Russian S400 Air Defence System.

Earlier, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was look for "concrete support" from NATO allies in regard to Syria's conflict.

"We expect concrete support from all our allies to this struggle," adding that "NATO is in a critical process in which it needs to clearly show its alliance solidarity" with Turkey.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.