MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2019) Monday's statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding terrorists controlling the Syrian Idlib province is a strong message to Turkey on the need to fully implement its commitments under the 2018 Idlib de-escalation agreement, Tarek Ahmad, a representative of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), told Sputnik.
Earlier in the day, the Russian president said during the press briefing following the trilateral talks in Ankara that the Syrian province of Idlib was in controlled by Al Qaeda-affiliated (Al Qaeda is a terrorist banned in Russia) radical groups and declared that Russia, Turkey, and Iran would work together to put an end to that.
"This is a message for Erdogan who was sitting aside Putin. That means that first of all the de-escalation agreement of last year between Erdogan and Putin must be implemented," Ahmad said.
He added that should Turkey fail to do so "the Syrian army and the Russian forces will have to do their job to free these areas from terrorism."
Ahmad also highlighted a very important role that all three presidents played in the region, while also noting the waning influence of the United States on Syrian events.
Despite recent successes by the Syrian military, Idlib remains the last stronghold of Islamist militants, serving as a relatively safe haven for various radical groups.
In May 2017, the warring parties held talks in the Kazakh capital of Nur Sultan under the mediation of Russia, Iran and Turkey, and managed to conclude a ceasefire agreement and establish four de-escalation zones. The Sochi agreement, brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in September 2018, created a demilitarized zone along the contact line between armed opposition and government forces in Idlib. Under the terms of the deal, militants were supposed to withdraw from this zone.
