Moscow has appealed to Ankara to refuse the idea of an operation in northern Syria and keeps trying to do so, Russian Presidential Special Envoy Alexander Lavrentyev said at a press conference on Thursday following the 18th international meeting on the Syrian Arab Republic.
"The decision to conduct [the operation] has not yet been made, so we have appealed and are appealing to our Turkish partners to refrain from conducting a military operation in northern Syria. We frankly told our Turkish friends that this can lead to further escalation of the situation, including armed confrontation. This may stimulate separatist sentiments of the so-called autonomous administration of north-east Syria, which neither Turkey, nor Russia, nor Iraq, nor Iran are interested in," he said.
Lavrentyev said Moscow still sees opportunities to find other ways to solve existing problems, including stopping the ongoing shelling, including of Turkish territory, which Russia condemns. "Work should continue with all sides. We need to try some kind of solution to this problem without resorting to forceful methods," the special presidential representative stressed, adding that the presence of American forces in northeastern Syria remains a significant factor.
According to him, by conducting a new military operation in northern Syria, Turkey will not completely solve its national security problems. "We believe and have frankly said so, that a military operation will not solve all the problems that now exist and, above all, will not completely solve Turkey's national security problems. It seems to me that Turkey's national security problems can only be solved by taking full control of the borders of the territories by Syrian government troops. Unfortunately, we have not seen this yet, it is true that mostly Kurdish self-defense groups are still there," Lavrentyev concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS