The Washington Post quotes Rafik Hariri Center Nonresident Fellow Aaron Stein on the plan for US involvement or support in the established ISIS-free zone on the Syrian border:
Still, “there will never be a [US] policy to provide direct air support” for Ahrar al-Sham, said Aaron Stein, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
“The plan is nebulous. The area is huge; it’s not well-defined,” Stein said of the safe-zone proposal. “There may be local governance structures set up” in the buffer region, he said, “but it’s not a textbook safe zone.”