Turkish and Russian forces yesterday began joint patrols near the northern Syrian border under an agreement reached after an attack by Ankara against Kurdish fighters in the region, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed that his country's ultimate goal is to restore the state's authority over the areas it controls Kurds in northeastern Syria, but noted that this will happen gradually.

In detail, the joint Russian-Turkish patrols began their work yesterday, near the town of Derbasiyah, west of Qamishli. The first patrol consists of nine Russian and Turkish armored vehicles, and is supposed to travel in a 110-kilometer strip along the Turkish border west of the town of Darbasiyah.

A reporter for «Agence France Presse» in Darbasiyah that the armor did not carry any Russian or Turkish flags at the request of Moscow.

On October 7, US forces fighting for years with the Kurds against ISIS withdrew from several border points with Turkey. Two days later, Turkey and its pro-Syrian factions began an offensive against Kurdish fighters that took control of a border area of ​​about 120 kilometers.

Turkey suspended its attack on October 23 after US mediation and an agreement with Russia that Moscow would facilitate the withdrawal of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara classifies as a "terrorist" group, from an area 30 kilometers from the border with Turkey. It was also agreed to conduct joint patrols near the border, mainly excluding the city of Qamishli.

For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a television interview, the night before last, the Russian-Turkish agreement «temporary», but «a positive thing does not eliminate the negative presence of Turkey, pending the Turkish presence in one way or another».

Assad said the state would not ask the Kurds to surrender their weapons immediately when the army enters their areas under a final deal with them that would restore state control over those areas.

The SDF had initially expressed reservations about some of the agreement, but later announced the start of withdrawing its forces from the "entire border area," and still retains its presence in several locations, especially east of the city of Qamishli.

Syrian forces have not yet deployed to the border areas east of the city of Qamishli, but only to send their soldiers to other border points west of the city.

The director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, told «AFP» that the US forces want to maintain their presence in the eastern side of the border area.

"The Americans want to prevent Russia and Syrian forces from deploying in the area east of the city of Qamishli," he said.

Coalition spokesman Mike Caiggins said the coalition continues to withdraw from northeastern Syria and "redeploy some of its forces in the Deir Ezzor area."

He explained that «all coalition military operations are conducted within the framework of disengagement with all forces operating in the region through channels that exist in the past».