NATO chief says military intervention in Syria would make matters worse

The head of NATO has defended the alliance for not intervening in Syria and said doing so would make matters worse as the evacuation of hundreds of people from Aleppo resumed. The 28 NATO members belong to the US-led coalition fighting IS but they are not directly involved in the conflict in Syria. Jens Stoltenberg said there were times where military intervention is necessary but Syria was not one of them. He told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “We are experiencing in Syria a horrible human catastrophe. Sometimes it is right to deploy militarily - such as in Afghanistan.

We would risk turning it into a bigger regional conflict. Or more innocent people could die. A military deployment is not always the solution.

Jens Stoltenberg, head of NATO

"But sometimes the costs of a military operation is higher than its benefit. Looking at Syria, NATO partners came to the conclusion that a military deployment would only make a terrible situation worse.”

Middle East