Germany could send fighter planes to patrol Syria after US talks

GERMANY is reportedly in talks with the US to provide military aircraft to patrol a safe zone in northern Syria proposed by Donald Trump.

Angela Merkel’s government has been in secret talks with the US over the plans for several months, according to Spiegel magazine. Under the proposals German Tornado fighters would patrol Syrian air space to protect the country’s Kurds from attack by Isil or Turkey.

However, the plan could be scuppered by opposition from Mrs Merkel’s coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

Mr Trump proposed a safe zone along the Turkish-syrian border earlier this year. Last year he ordered US troops to begin withdrawing from northern Syria, arguing Isil is all but defeated. But opponents argue it will leave the Americans’ Kurdish allies at the mercy of Turkish forces.

The German air force already has Tornadoes in the skies over Syria, but they only provide reconnaissance and refuelling for air strikes by Us-led coalition forces. It has also sent soldiers to train Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. Germany has come under intense pressure from Mr Trump’s demands for Nato members to pay more towards the cost of their own defence. German military spending still lags behind Nato’s target of 2 per cent of GDP.

“We should be sympathetic to the US government’s request,” Jürgen Hardt, a foreign policy spokesman for Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats, told Spiegel.

Under German law, all military deployments must be approved by parliament, which will be difficult without SPD support.

“The SPD pushed through last year that the current Tornado deployment expires this autumn,” Rolf Mützenich, its foreign policy spokesman, said. “An extension or change of the mandate is in our view out of the question.” ♦the Syrian government and Russia have in the last month bombed eight hospitals in the rebel stronghold of Idlib. That came despite the UN giving the GPS locations of the hospitals to Russia as part of a “deconfliction mechanism” after the regular targeting of hospitals and clinics – a war crime – in the course of the conflict.