Beirut: Syria’s foreign minister said a deal to create a demilitarised zone in a northwestern rebel stronghold was a step towards “liberating” the territory, in comments aired Tuesday.
“We have expressed the hope that the Russian-Turkish agreement is a step towards the liberation of Idlib,” Walid Muallem said in an interview with the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen channel.
On September 17, regime ally Moscow agreed with Ankara to create a buffer area ringing Idlib in a bid to avert a massive government blitz on the northwestern opposition bastion.
The area would be free of both jihadists and heavy arms by mid-October.
The deal has so far averted a massive assault on the region by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, but its implementation is expected to be complex.
Pro-Turkey rebels have cautiously accepted the deal, but some have rejected it, saying the zone would only encompass territory currently under rebel control and objecting to the presence of Russian military police.
The dominant force in the region bordering Turkey, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance led by jihadists of Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate, had on Saturday still not responded.
Muallem said he was confident in Turkey’s ability to fulfil its side of the deal “because of its knowledge of factions” on the ground.
He said fighters from the area would be allowed to stay, while those from other areas would go home and foreigners would leave through Turkey.
Damascus has repeatedly accused its northern neighbour of backing “terrorists” and facilitating their passage into Syria.
But Muallem said it would be “necessary in the future to normalise relations” between the two countries — providing Turkey withdrew its troops from Syria.
[source_without_link]Agence France-Presse[/source_without_link]