Russia and Turkey will soon resume joint patrolling of the M4 route, as soon as the situation calms down, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
As Lavrov recalled, the Turkish-Russian Memorandum is fully in force, the joint patrolling of the M4 route was suspended because of the security concerns, since the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham continues to make armed provocations and to attack the Syrian government positions.
"Our Turkish colleagues have their predominant responsibility (to separate the normal opposition from the terrorists) under this Memorandum which you asserted to. Fighting terrorism is task number 1. I can assure you that the joint patrolling of the M4 route would resume soon, as soon as the situation has calmed down," Lavrov told Al-Arabiya channel.
As an informed Turkish source told RIA Novosti earlier, representatives of the military departments of Russia and Turkey at the talks in Ankara did not come to any agreements on the Syrian Idlib, the Russian side did not agree with the proposal to transfer the cities of Tall Rifat and Manbij to Turkish control.
Idlib is the only region of Syria, a significant part of which still remains in the hands of gangs. In 2017, a Northern de-escalation zone was created there, where extremists who refused to lay down their weapons in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta and the southern regions of the country moved. In the province, there are observation posts of the Turkish army, and in accordance with agreements between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan made on March 5, the military of the two countries carried out joint patrols in Idlib.
The armed conflict in Syria has been going on since 2011. At the end of 2017, the victory over the terrorist group "Islamic state" in Syria and Iraq was announced. In some areas of the countries, the cleansing of militants continues. At the moment, the political settlement, the restoration of Syria, as well as the return of refugees are at the forefront.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: AP/TASS