No Syria attack plan: NATO

BRUSSELS / DAMASCUS

NATO currently has no plan to intervene militarily in Syria, although it is monitoring the situation closely because Syria’s neighbor Turkey is a NATO member, NATO Secretary-General Ander Fogh Rasmussen has said.

“Of course, we stand ready to take all necessary steps to protect and defend Turkey as an ally within NATO,” Rasmussen told Reuters in an interview on Sept. 3. His comments came as Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statements on establishing buffer zones was an act of aggression against national sovereignty, and that Syria would respond to any attempt to impinge on its sovereignty.