Terrorists control most of Idlib

1 Saudi Arabia

The ’Al Arabiya’ TV reported while citing a statement from the Saudi-led Arabian coalition that the Arabian coalition’s air defenses intercepted and destroyed a UAV with a bomb, launched by the Yemeni rebels. It was reported that the UAV was launched towards the city of Khamis-Mushayt. The coalition officials called the launch of the drone a «war crime». The coalition added that they are taking «actions to protect the population and the civilian infrastructure in accordance with the international law».

2 Russia — Syria

The Russian presidential special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, stated in an interview with the ’TASS’ news agency that the time has come for the Syrians to «discuss the specific articles of the constitution — how the government sees it, and how the opposition sees it. And then turn it into a written form». According to him — the stumbling block in the work of the Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva is the following: in the opinion of the Syrians and Damascus, it is necessary to firstly come to an understanding of the basic national principles such as sovereignty and territorial integrity. Alexander Lavrentiev noted that the national foundations and basic constitutional principles were discussed during the 3rd, 4th and 5th rounds.

3 Russia — Syria

The Russian presidential special envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, announced during an interview with the ’TASS’ news agency that terrorists in Idlib must be ended. He explained that most of Idlib is still being controlled by the ’Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’ organization, which is now outwardly showing their readiness to meet Turkey half-way. Alexander Lavrentyev noted that Turkey doesn’t want to use the moderate opposition to fight the terrorists in Idlib. He added that Russia calls on Turkey to fulfill all agreements in accordance with all the reached protocols, and to stabilize the situation. «Namely — to do it along the M4 highway by building guard posts on both sides in order to create a safety zone for a safe movement of the civilians along the highway. So far it hasn’t been done.» — Alexander Lavrentiev concluded.

4 Russia — Syria

The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Mikdad, held telephone conversations. During the talks, the parties discussed the results of the 15th international meeting on Syria, in the Astana format. Sergei Lavrov confirmed the position of Moscow on the «unconditional respect of the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Syria, as well as the legal right of the Syrians to independently determine the future of their country». The parties condemned the use of the one-sided sanctions and politicized approaches in the provision of humanitarian aid to Syria. And also — the on-going illegal foreign military presence in the country. It was noted that Moscow and Damascus have confirmed their intention to further enhance their cooperation.

5 Russia — Armenia

The Russian Foreign Ministry reported that the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the Armenian Foreign Minister Ara Ayvazyan discussed during their talks in Moscow the implementation of the trilateral agreement on Karabakh. «A proper discussion took place on all aspects of the implementation of the agreements of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, made during 9th of November, 2020, and 11th of January, 2021. A particular attention was paid to the discussion of the exchange of PoWs, humanitarian aid, and unblocking of the transport links in the region, including in the context of efforts via the trilateral working group at the level of deputy prime ministers» — the message reported.

6 The USA

The head of the press service of the US State Department, Ned Price, announced that the US State Department doesn’t have any additional information about the plans to hold Russian-American-Chinese consultations on Afghanistan in the near future. Thus Ned Price commented on the statement of the Russian Presidential special envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, about an agreement with Washington to organize such negotiations. Earlier Zamir Kabulov stated in an interview to the ’Sputnik Afghanistan’ about an agreement with the US special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to hold a meeting between Russia, the USA, and China. Zamir Kabulov said that consultations can take place in Moscow by the end of February. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS.