US president raises concerns over safe zone inside Syria

LONDON

U.S. President Barack Obama has said the issue of creating a safe zone inside Syria was not an “ideological” matter but an issue of “practicality”.

Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a joint news conference in Hannover on Sunday following their bilateral meeting.

They discussed a wide range of issues including crises in Syria, Libya and the ratification of the EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal. At the joint press briefing, They addressed the debates surrounding a safe zone inside Syria.

“We are in constant communications with Turkey, our NATO ally, in finding ways in which we can resolve this situation,” Obama said. “The issue surrounding a safe zone in Syrian territory is not a matter of an ideological objection on my part […] It is a very practical issue about how do you do it and who is going to put on a bunch of ground troops inside of Syria.”

Obama has said that without “being willing to militarily take over a big chunk of that country” it would be very difficult to see how it would operate.

“And that requires a big military commitment,” Obama stated.

Merkel said that this was something that needed to come out of Geneva process. The third round of talks to resolve the Syria conflict began in Geneva on April 13.

"I believe that if you had followed what I said yesterday in Turkey, it is something that has to come out of the Geneva peace talks; it is not something that can be called a safe zone in traditional way,” she stated.

German Chancellor emphasized that creating a safe zone could provide safe havens for thousands of Syrians who flee the civil war.

Obama flew in from London to join Chancellor Angela Merkel in opening a trade fair as well as support the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

On Saturday, thousands protested against TTIP in Hannover, claiming it would force down wages and weaken environmental protection, consumer protection and labor rights. There are also concerns the agreement, which has been conducted behind closed doors, will leave the way open for U.S. companies to effectively privatize public services in Europe.

Supporters of the deal say it will increase trade and create millions of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic by removing trade tariffs. He met Merkel on Sunday at the historic Herrenhausen Palace for further negotiations over the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - a free trade deal being negotiated between the U.S. and the European Union.

On Monday, Obama will meet Merkel, President Francois Hollande of France and the prime ministers of Italy and the U.K., Matteo Renzi and David Cameron, to discuss the trade deal as well as counter-terrorism, NATO, migration and the situations in Syria, Libya and Ukraine, the White House said.