Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he did not rule out possible future counterterrorist operations in the Idlib de-escalation zone in the north of Syria, stressing that it would be currently inappropriate to conduct such operations due to a risk to do harm to civilians
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th April, 2019) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he did not rule out possible future counterterrorist operations in the Idlib de-escalation zone in the north of Syria, stressing that it would be currently inappropriate to conduct such operations due to a risk to do harm to civilians.
"Should any large-scale operations be held now? ... There is such a factor as the presence of civilian population ... We will have to correlate what the civilian population is going through in this zone ... and the possible cost of active fighting. In principle, I do not rule out this [that counterterrorist operations could be held], but we and our Syrian friends believe that this would currently be inappropriate. I am referring to the humanitarian component," Putin said at a press conference following the Belt and Road summit in Beijing.
He stressed that Syrian military staff were carrying out counterterrorist operations, while Russia was just providing aerial support.
Putin also said that if terrorist continued their attempt to leave the de-escalation zone, they would face counterattacks.
