Any actions aimed at securing the Syrian-Turkish border must not violate Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2019) Any actions aimed at securing the Syrian-Turkish border must not violate Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.On Wednesday, the United States announced that progress had been made on negotiations to secure and jointly patrol with Turkey a safe zone about 20 miles wide along Syria's northeastern border with Turkey. Previously, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the future security zone would be controlled by the Turkish military.
"The basis of any agreements on this [securing the Syrian-Turkish border] needs to be the strict observation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Any actions that violate these principles will not lead to the secure and long-term stabilization of the situation in this nation," Zakharova told reporters.
In January, US President Donald Trump proposed the establishment of the safe zone as a solution to decrease tensions between Turkey and the US-allied Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militia, which controls that region and which Ankara views as a terrorist group and in December threatened to launch an offensive against.
