Russia’s foreign ministry said on Thursday the process of separating radical militants from moderate opposition groups in the demilitarized zone in Syria’s Idlib region had not yet been successfully achieved, despite Turkish-Russian efforts for setting up a de-escalation area.
Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the process, which was launched as part of a deal between Turkey and Russia in September, had not been successful despite efforts by Ankara.
For his part, UN humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said Russia said it would go to great lengths to avoid military action if their own positions were not attacked.
“The worst case scenario is still horrific war across enormous areas but the way that Russia and Turkey tell us of their plans ... makes me a cautious optimist. I don’t see the big war coming any time soon to Idlib.”
Russia and Turkey, after Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had agreed to create a demilitarized zone between the government troops and militants before October 15. The zone will be 15-20 km wide, with full withdrawal of hardline militants from there, and later on the removal of all heavy-duty arms, including tanks and rocket launchpads.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored increased violations within the Turkish – Russian truce areas.
The human rights watchdog issued a report stating that at least 46 have been killed in clashes and shelling by the regime forces at the northern and northwestern countryside of Aleppo, Idlib countryside, and Hama countryside, since the start of the demilitarized buffer area agreement on the 17th of September 2018.
Some 23 Jaysh al-Izza fighters were killed during ambushes and clashes -including at least one leader- in the northern countryside of Hama.
On the other hand, at least 9 people were killed as a result of shelling by the regime forces on Jarjanaz town and its vicinity, and at least 7 citizens including 3 children and 3 women were killed as a result of shelling on al-Raffa village, the report added.
