BICOM

Russia and Turkey have agreed to set up a 15-25km demilitarised zone to separate government forces from rebel fighters in Syria’s Idlib province.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who met yesterday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, said the agreement is a compromise between establishing a region “cleaned of weapons … under the control of the regime and the opposition” and in return removing radical groups, that “we will designate together with Russia” from the area. Erdogan said the agreement would prevent the loss of civilian lives.

The demilitarised zone will reportedly be patrolled by soldiers from Russia and Turkey. Putin said that under the deal, all heavy weaponry, including tanks, rocket launch systems and mortar launchers operated by rebel groups would need to be pulled out of the zone by 10 October. This would entail a “withdrawal of all radical fighters” from Idlib, including the al-Nusra Front, referring to Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which poses a “threat both to the city of Aleppo and our military facilities in Syria, namely in Tartus and Hmeymim,” Putin added.

The Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the deal meant there would be no military operations in the region, which includes three million civilians and is the last major rebel stronghold.

President Putin also said both sides agreed to “resume transit traffic along the Aleppo-Latakia and Aleppo-Hama highways by the end of 2018, also at the initiative of the Turkish side”. Jan Egeland, an adviser for UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, said on Twitter: “Hope at long last for 3 million Syrian civilians in Idlib: Russia and Turkey agree on plan that may avert horrific war among displaced people. The Syrian government and armed opposition groups must respect deal, not provoke bloodshed and allow humanitarian access.”