Nato plunged into chaos by war on Syrian border
DECEMBER’S Nato summit in London could be scrapped because the military alliance is too divided over Turkey’s incursion into Syria, senior sources warned last night.
The heads of 29 member states are expected to descend on the capital to mark Nato’s 70th anniversary, in what was due to be Britain’s first major international conference following Brexit.
They are due to discuss the growing threat from China for the first time.
But senior political sources in Brussels have cast doubts over the wisdom of holding it while European members, which make up the majority of Nato, face two deep rifts: one with Turkey and one with the US.
“Attempting to pass meaningful policies in this challenging environment seems to me to be problematic,” said one. “Nato needs, more than anything right now, to demonstrate harmony and solidarity. Unless things change substantially, a delay would not be unwise.”
Fabrice Pothier, Nato’s former director of planning and policy, last night branded the Turkey crisis as “the biggest to affect the alliance since the Gulfwar.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, beset by low opinion polls and a tanking economy, says the operation aims to counter a terror threat by securing a Kurdish-free buffer zone 300 miles along the border and extending 20 miles into Syrian territory.
But the move is viewed by Europe as a betrayal of Kurdish forces who helped to vanquish Islamic State, and has opened the prospect of thousands of detained IS fighters and their families, now being held by Kurdish forces, being released from detention camps to make their way back into Europe.
It was only made possible because of President Trump’s decision to move all US troops out of eastern Syria.
Washington attempted to mitigate the fall-out by imposing sanctions on Turkey.
But a request for Nato members to follow suit, made in front of Turkish delegates during a high-level meeting in London last week, simply drove divisions deeper, sources say.
A five-day ceasefire was brokered on Thursday but it is not certain it will hold.
Last night former head of Britain’s armed forces General Lord Dannatt said: “Current divisions within Nato are very concerning and suggestions that the summit should be postponed understandable.
“It would be very difficult to have a cordial Nato summit when two of its largest members are at loggerheads over Syria.”