No-fly zone a no-go for US

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration is boxed in by its promise to limit U.S. military engagement against Islamic State extremists, making it tough to agree to Turkey’s condition for joining the fight in neighboring Syria.

Turkey and other U.S. allies want the U.S. to create a no-fly zone inside Syrian territory. Doing so would mean embracing one of two options President Barack Obama has long resisted: cooperating with Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government or taking out its air defenses, action tantamount to war.

Airstrikes alone might not prevent Islamic militants from carrying out a massacre at a Kurdish border town, but for now the U.S. isn’t steering a new course in its expanded, one-month counterterrorism effort in Iraq and Syria.

Demands are rising for the creation of a secure buffer on the Syrian side of its frontier with Turkey as the U.S. and its coalition members plead with the Turks to prevent the fall of Kobani, where the United Nations is warning of mass casualties. A “safe zone” would require Americans and their partners to protect ground territory and patrol the skies, meaning it would have to enforce a no-fly area.

Turkey, an American NATO ally, is demanding such a step for a variety of reasons.

A buffer might stem the flow of refugees into Turkish territory. It also could provide Syrian opposition fighters with a staging ground for their rebellion to oust Assad — something that Turkey wants to see happen.

The U.S., wary of the implications, wants the focus to remain on defeating Islamic State militants who have captured large areas of northern Syria and Iraq. Yet some of America’s closest partners and Obama’s fiercest foreign-policy critics at home are sympathetic to Turkey’s request.

France issued a statement this week announcing its support. The Republican head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee believes Arab countries would shoulder the load. Even Secretary of State John Kerry is describing a no-fly zone as worth examining.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has shown little enthusiasm for the idea. American leaders are open to discussing a safe zone, he said last week, but creating one isn’t “actively being considered.”

“When it comes to the so-called buffer zone, no-fly zone, they’ve proposed these for some time,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Friday. “We are not considering the implementation of this option at this time.”