Iran welcomes Russia, Turkey deal on Syrian rebel-held Idlib

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Bahram Qassemi on Tuesday welcomed a new agreement between Russia and Turkey on a proposed “demilitarized zone” in the rebel-held and embattled Syrian province of Idlib.

“The summit between the Russian and Turkish heads of state and the announcement of the agreement on how to resolve the issue of Idlib in Syria is an important and fundamental step toward removing the remnants of terrorists in Syria,” the Tasnim news agency quoted Qassemi as saying.

In an earlier round of talks where Iran was also present, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed to convince his Iranian and Russian counterparts Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin to a ceasefire in the province where his army backs rebel forces dominated by al-Qaida’s local branch Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly Jabhat al-Nusra.

On Monday and without the presence of Iran, Putin and Erdogan met in the Russian city of Sochi, and agreed to create “by Oct. 15 of this year a demilitarized zone of 15 to 20 kilometers between the territories controlled by the militants and the territories controlled by the Syrian government.”

Before the deal, US made successive calls for restraint  for a looming offensive on Idlib by the Syrian government with the backing of Russia and Iran, warning the three allies against “recklessly” attacking the city, with the White House affirming, if Syrian “President Bashar al-Assad chooses to again use chemical weapons,” the US and its allies “will respond swiftly and appropriately.”

After Qassemi’s remarks, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “we have always been at the center of the consultations on Syrian issues.”

“All our efforts on Idlib from the outset were to prevent a war and to fight the terrorists and cleanse Syria from the terrorists without conflicts and casualties,” Zarif was reported as saying by the BBC.

He added, “the frameworks agreed upon by Russia and Turkey were the same as that we had previously discussed, meaning being able to dispense Idlib from the presence of the terrorists without actually having an effect on the lives of the people.”

Editing by John J. Catherine