Germany has urged the international community to act against a humanitarian disaster in the Syrian province of Idlib amid reports of a potential military offensive by the regime forces.
"We will do everything to prevent a humanitarian disaster in Idlib," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told a news conference in Berlin on Monday.
"This will be one of the main topics during my visit to Turkey on Wednesday and Thursday," he added.
Located near the Turkish border, Idlib is home to more than 3 million Syrian people, many of whom fled from other cities which were attacked by the Assad regime's forces.
"We have witnessed the brutality of the Assad regime in the past … it is a very, very serious situation," Maas said.
He also warned that a military escalation would severely undermine ongoing efforts for a political solution to the seven years of civil war in Syria.
France on Monday also expressed "its concern about a possible major offensive by the Syrian regime and its allies" against the Syrian province of Idlib.
"Such an offensive would have disastrous consequences. It would engender a new major humanitarian and migratory catastrophe since it could directly threaten the 3 million civilians counted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the region," the French foreign ministry said in a statement, calling on Russia and Turkey to help protect civilian populations.
On Friday, Turkey, Iran and Russia will hold a three-way summit on Syria in Tehran, where observers say the fate of Idlib could be decided.
Turkey has warned that a military operation to take Idlib risks provoking a humanitarian "catastrophe" with 3.5 million people crammed into the region.
Idlib and the surrounding region have a population of approximately 3.5 million, and substantial part of it consists of refugees who fled different parts of the country.
