Syria: UNSC considers US text urging Turkey to rely on diplomacy

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council is considering a US-drafted text calling for Turkey, currently engaged in an offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces, to return to diplomacy, diplomatic sources said Thursday.
The deliberations come after an emergency meeting earlier in the day in which the five European Council members were unable to convince the rest of the 15-state body to adopt a statement asking Turkey to halt its military operations in northern  Syria .
France, Germany, Britain, Belgium and Poland were forced to deliver their statement alone, while the United States issued a separate statement asserting that it did not endorse the Turkish operation.
According to diplomats, Russia was the biggest obstacle to a united front from the whole Security Council.  Russian ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said, “If there is a product of the Security Council, it should take into account other aspects of the Syrian crisis, not just the Turkish operation.” “It should speak about the illegal military presence in that country,” he said, referencing the United States, France and Britain.