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The Security Council, at the UN headquarters in New York (illustrative image). How far will the Council be prepared to react against Ankara? REUTERS / Carlo Allegri

On the morning of Thursday 10 October, the Security Council will discuss the Turkish military offensive in north-east Syria that began yesterday. The Council has been seized for this meeting which will be held in camera by the European member countries. In a letter to the council, Turkey quoted article 51 of the UN's charter on self-defense, saying it only protects its borders. Indeed, it equates Kurdish forces with terrorists.

With our correspondent at the UN, Carrie Nooten

The first concern of the UN Security Council is the significant humanitarian crisis looming, with the departure of civilians from the attacked area in northeastern Syria . But how far will the Council be prepared to react against Ankara? It is this level of virulence that will preoccupy international diplomats this morning.

The threat of refugees

The United States, in bilateral negotiations with Erdogan for over a year, will not want to lose their Turkish support in NATO, for example.
The European countries - five out of the fifteen members of the Council - know that Ankara could threaten to let refugees go to Greece en masse, if too much sanctions were taken against him.

On the other hand, the members of the Council are also aware that treating the Kurds, allies in the fight against the Islamic State group, could have a very serious side consequence: the Kurds are indeed the guardians of 10,000 prisoners, ex - terrorist fighters. To weaken them is to take the risk that these prisoners escape, and that the IS group can reorganize a new front. However, the diplomats here in New York insist on the fragility of the victory gained a few months ago on the terrorist group.

Shockwaves

The challenge, therefore, for the Security Council is to alleviate the shock waves of the announcement that Donald Trump made four days ago and on which he partially returned. A statement that overshadowed the fact that, in parallel, finally, all members of the Council were united, and that a political solution with elections in Syria became for the first time a little more tangible.

Emotion and sentence in Paris

In France, the President of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Marielle De Sarnez, wants to be very firm: " I totally condemn this act, it is a moral fault, with regard to our allies, the Forces Syrian democracies which are composed of Kurds but not only, who are also composed of other communities for example Christian communities, these forces, these Syrian democratic forces, had more than 13,000 dead during the war, and if had not been there, Daesh would not have defeated militarily. "

Then, continues Ms De Sonnnez, " it is a political mistake, since this intervention, it obviously maintains a risk of climbing along the Syrian-Turkish border, there is in this whole area a resurgence of Daesh it is also a place, the north-east of Syria, in which there are a number of jihadists held in camps and there should not be there also on this side a destabilization. "

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