Republican candidate Rubio joins the growing list of US politicians supporting no-fly zone in Syria

Florida Senator and the Republican presidential hopeful, Marco Rubio voiced his support for the establishment of a no-fly zone in Syria to protect the civilians against Assad forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) as the U.S. politicians are coming to build a consensus over Syrian policy.

In an article published on Foreign Policy on Tuesday, Rubio said that the United States should work with its allies in the region, particularly with neighboring states such as Jordan and Turkey, to set up safe zones in border regions of Syria, where the moderate opposition can begin to govern free of threat of Assad regime or ISIS attacks.

Rubio also criticized the Obama administration for failing to respond to the crisis in the region, calling the U.S.'s progress in Syria 'far from sufficient'. He said "reversing the gains that both Iran and the ISIS have made, ending Assad's reign of terror once and for all will be much more difficult than if we had acted at the outset of the civil war in Syria, as some of us urged President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But it is still not impossible."

Rubio is not the first U.S. politician who called for the implementation of a no-fly zone. The prominent GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush has also recently voiced his support for a safe zone to protect Syrians against ISIS and the Assad government and underlined the need for an expansion of support for moderate Syrian opposition groups.

In his speech Bush said, "Defeating ISIS requires defeating Assad, but we have to make sure that his regime is not replaced by something as bad or worse."

In April, Republican and Democratic U.S. senators including Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham and Democrats Richard Durbin and Tim Kaine also called on Obama to create and enforce humanitarian safe zones in Syria, with "necessary enforcement mechanisms" including air assets, and securing of the border area by Turkey.


The plan to designate a zone to protect Syrian civilians, which was first proposed by the Turkish government four years ago has never actualized as the U.S. and most NATO countries were opposed to the idea only until recently.

While the Syrian civil war enters its fifth year with no cease-fire or political transition in sight, leaving more than 220,000 people dead and 10 million Syrians displaced, Turkey and the U.S. have reportedly agreed in general terms on a plan to establish a zone to protect the Syrian civilians in the region.

Turkish officials said that the safe zone is to provide conditions for refugees to return to Syria. After cleaning the proposed safe zone of ISIS militants and other threats, Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) is planning to build refugee camps inside Syria as a first step. According to sources, building roads, permanent accommodations, schools and hospitals are also considered in long term.

Even though the details remain unknown, the plan aims to protect the Syrian civilians, to prevent the refugee crisis becoming worse than it already is, and to help the neighboring countries which bear the greatest burden of the crisis and to help stabilize a shattered Syria.

Turkey currently hosts more than 1.3 million Syrian refugees while millions others have taken shelter in neighboring Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.