In the past two months in Idlib there has been a “dangerous increase in tension and a surge of violence,” which has led to the death of Russian military specialists. This is stated in a comment by the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs “on the development of the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that since December 2019, the Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham * terrorists who captured the de-escalation zone have intensified their aggressive attacks and attacks on the positions of the Syrian government forces and nearby cities, primarily Aleppo.
Over the last month of last year alone, over 1.4 thousand attacks by militants were recorded, which they carried out using "tanks, machine guns, infantry fighting vehicles, mortar and artillery shellings." At the same time, militants impede the exit from the de-escalation zone of the civilian population.
"In fact, jihadists have taken the population of the Idlib de-escalation zone hostage and use it as a human shield," the report says.
At the same time, diplomats indicate that in mid-January, the military of Russia and Turkey made another attempt to introduce a "silence regime" in this territory, but the terrorists only intensified their combat activity.
“In the last two weeks of January alone, more than 1,000 attacks were recorded. The count of dead and wounded among Syrian troops and civilians outside the de-escalation zone went to hundreds. Russian and Turkish military specialists were tragically killed. Attempts to attack the Russian Khmeimim airbase with the use of shock drones do not stop, ”the Foreign Ministry said.
As noted in the Russian department, all this testifies to the "unacceptable strengthening of terrorists in Idlib, enjoying complete impunity and free hands." The transfer of part of the armed formations from the de-escalation zone, first to northeast Syria, and then to Libya, brought the concentration of radicals to a critical limit, diplomats said.
- globallookpress.com
- © Konstantin Kokoshkin
“In this regard, they drew attention to a number of statements by Western countries, primarily the United States, in which they try to present the Khayyat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists as moderate opposition and fence them off under the pretext of establishing a cessation of hostilities (RAPB). There has never been and never can be any RBAP with terrorists, as is explicitly provided for in paragraph 8 of UNSC resolution 2254, ”the commentary says.
In addition, the West ignores the facts of the seizure of civilian objects by terrorists, which they converted to firing points, warehouses with weapons and ammunition, workshops for the production of weapons and explosives, barracks and prisons.
On January 27, the problem of terrorist activization in Idlib was raised during a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. At the same time, on February 4, the aggravation of the situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone was discussed by the presidents of the two countries. Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan pointed to “the need for strict implementation of the Russian-Turkish Idlib accords,” which envisage building up joint efforts to neutralize terrorists.
“It was agreed to take urgent measures, primarily through the ministries of defense of Russia and Turkey in order to further increase the effectiveness of coordination in Syria,” the report said.
At the same time, Sergei Lavrov, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, noted that Ankara “was unable to fulfill a couple of key obligations that were designed to solve the Idlib problem in the root.” In particular, the creation of a demilitarized strip and the dissociation of the armed opposition, which cooperates with the Turks and is ready for dialogue with the government of the SAR in the framework of the political process, from terrorists.
“The maximum that we agreed on already in 2019 is that the regime of silence, if it is respected by everyone, must be respected. But even after the third reminder from Russia and Turkey to all who are in the Idlib zone, the bandits I mentioned (“Hayyat Tahrir al-Sham” militants. - RT ) did not stop their provocative actions, ”the head stated Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
* “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham” (“Jabhat Fath al-Sham”, “Front al-Nusra”, “Jabhat al-Nusra”) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 29, 2014.