The 15-member United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet Thursday on Syria in an emergency session behind closed doors in response to a request by its five European members: Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and Poland.
The move comes in response to the start of a military invasion of northern Syria launched by Turkey with the announced intention to prevent what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called in a tweet, a “terror corridor across our southern border,” and, he claimed, “to bring peace to the area.”
France, Britain and Germany were “finalizing a joint statement that will be extremely clear on the fact that we condemn very strongly and firmly what has been reported,” French European Affairs Minister Amélie de Montchalin told Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Montchalin added that a separate statement from the 28 state-European Union has yet to be formulated because some countries have not agreed to sign on, Reuters reported.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, meanwhile, has urged Turkey to “halt its military operation.”
