President Barack Obama
If you like your coverage you can keep it...
's front man Josh Earnest told news hounds the U.S. was "open to discussing a range of options with the Turks" but that a no-fly zone over Syria was not on the table "at this point."
Turkey has been pushing for a buffer zone inside Syria to shelter refugees from the three-way fight between Syrian
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
's regime, rebels and Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
jihadists.
But Ankara, which has seen fighting on its southern frontier, has so far failed to persuade its NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
ally Washington, despite US jets already hitting IS targets inside Syria, to put its might behind the plan.
Since the civil war erupted in Syria in early 2011 there have been repeated calls for a no-fly zone to protect the rebels and refugees.
Former top U.S. diplomat Hillary Clinton
... sometimes described as
The Liberatress of Libyaand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another William H. Seward...
was apparently in favor of creating such a zone, but Obama has consistently ruled it out, concerned that Washington would be drawn deeper into the conflict.
This weekend U.S. media reports suggested Washington's stance is shifting after a visit to Turkey last month by Vice President
Joe Foreign Policy Whiz KidBiden
The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body...
, but Earnest insisted this was not the case.
The Wall Street Journal reported that as part of a deal between the U.S. and Turkey, a protected "safe zone" along the border would be set up that would be off-limits to Assad's aircraft.
Narrower than a formal no-fly zone, it would not need any air-strikes. Instead the U.S. would quietly warn the Assad regime to stay away, the Journal said.
In exchange U.S. and coalition aircraft would use Turkey's Incirlik base as well as others to patrol the zone to make sure that rebels operating on the Turkey-Syria border do not come under attack.
The reports came just as Secretary of State John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
was heading back to Brussels for talks on Wednesday with ministers from the 60-strong global coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
He will be accompanied by General John Allen, the U.S. pointman forging the coalition to counter the threat from the group, also known as ISIL, which has captured a swathe of territory in Iraq and Syria.
"It's an opportunity to take stock of where things stand, obviously discuss what needs to happen from here, provide updates on where countries stand," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki
...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State...
She said Washington continued to review a number of options including a no-fly zone, but insisted such discussions were "ongoing."
"We continue to have differences" with Turkey, Psaki told news hounds, stressing "we haven't made a decision about a specific course of implementation, we're just continuing to have a discussion with Turkey."