LOC20:54
17:54 GMT
PARIS, Feb 20 (KUNA) -- French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is soon to travel to Moscow and Tehran to hold talks on the growing crisis between Syria and Turkey following the Turkish incursion against Kurdish YPG forces in the Afrin region of north-west Syria, parliamentary sources said.
Le Drian said in a televised debate on the Parliamentary "LCP" channel that he intended to visit Russia and Iran because we are moving towards "a humanitarian cataclysm" in the crisis in Syria.
No specific dates for the trips were given by the Foreign Minister, who is expected anyway in Tehran on March 4, but who may seek to move his trip forward.
France has warned Turkey about its military operation against Afrin because of the impact on hundreds of thousands of refugees in the region, who went there to escape conflict elsewhere in Syria.
Le Drian has several times told Ankara that he understands Turkey's security and border concerns but that a military invasion or occupation of parts of Syria would be "totally condemned."
As pro-Damascus militia forces were reported to be moving into the Afrin conflict zone Tuesday to support the YPG Kurds, a clash between Turkish and pro-regime Syrian forces is becoming a serious risk, especially as Ankara says it will soon start a siege of Afrin. (end)
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