The US-led coalition must deploy ground troops to eliminate the Islamic State militants in Syria, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
The coalition comprising over 60 states, including Turkey, has been conducting airstrikes on IS positions in Syria since 2014 without approval from the United Nations or the current Syrian authority, Sputnik reported.
“A ground force is something which we have to talk about together. There’s a need of an integrated strategy, including air campaign and ground troops. If there is a coalition and a very well-designed integrated strategy, Turkey is ready to take part in all senses,” Davutoglu told CNN in an interview on Monday.
“Otherwise, just to make a ground attack against IS, but continue to have a power vacuum on the ground, instead of IS another terrorist group may emerge. We have to solve the Syrian crisis in a comprehensive manner.”
For Turkey to be more involved in the prosecution of IS, an agreement is needed by the international coalition to fight “all groups and regimes creating this vacuum and creating this problem”, said Davutoglu.
“Many days in a week, we are conducting air campaigns against IS in the coalition. It is not enough, we are observing this,” he said, reiterating Turkey’s call to establish a safe haven “to push IS far away from our border”.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the country’s government fighting a number of opposition factions and radical militant organizations, including Islamic State.
