Damascus is working with Russia to ensure that the Kurdish forces pull back from the Turkish border and expects Ankara to move its troops as well, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Sputnik and Rossiya 24 broadcaster
DAMASCUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2019) Damascus is working with Russia to ensure that the Kurdish forces pull back from the Turkish border and expects Ankara to move its troops as well, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Sputnik and Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
The pullback is part of the Russian-Turkish agreement, concluded in late October to resolve the conflict over Turkey's operation in northern Syria. Ankara was targeting the Kurdish militia, which it believes to be linked to extremist groups, and the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia).
"As to implementation, they [Kurds] announced that they would implement and this has happened in some areas, but it hasn't been implemented fully and this is to be expected. These types of measures do not happen overnight or quickly; there isn't necessarily a central control over all the groups fighting in a particular area. Militias often fight and take their decisions in a chaotic manner and that's why things are implemented in a particular place and not in another," Assad said.
"We are cooperating with Russia in order to fully implement this agreement, after which we should tell the Turks to start withdrawing," the Syrian president went on to say.
