Bashar al-Assad's forces have taken control of the entire Syrian city of Minbej and its environs, as part of a deployment to counter the Turkish offensive, Moscow said Tuesday. "Syrian government forces have taken full control of the city of Minbej and surrounding localities," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russia promises to avoid confrontation
He added that the Russian military police "conduct patrols at the northwestern borders of the region, along the line of contact" between Syrian and Turkish forces. The Russian special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, for his part assured that Moscow would not allow clashes between the Turkish and Syrian armies.
Such clashes "are not in anyone's interest and would be unacceptable," he said, quoted by the TASS public agency since Abu Dhabi, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is traveling Tuesday. "We will not let (things) get there," he promised, adding that Russia did not support the Turkish offensive, but instead "always urged Turkey to restrain."
Talks in progress
According to Alexander Lavrentiev, talks between Kurds and emissaries of the Damascus regime took place at the Russian military base in Hmeimim, in northwestern Syria. However, he said he did not know the results of these negotiations in the immediate future. The Russian envoy assured that the situation in northern Syria "could really undermine the interfaith peace in these areas inhabited not only by the Kurds, but also by Arabs and Sunnis". The arrival of Syrian government forces in Minbej, controlled since July 2018 by a military council composed of Arab and Kurdish fighters, is a first since 2012. The city is located 30 kilometers from the Turkish border.