Truce Violations in Idlib

1 Turkey

The Turkish National Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, stated that the negotiations between the Turkish and the Russian military experts on the Syrian Idlib continue in a constructive manner — the ‘Anadolu’ news agency quoted the Turkish Minister of Defense. The negotiations began in Ankara, on Tuesday — 10th of March. The negotiations discuss the joint patrol of the M-4 highway in Syria. The start of the patrol is scheduled for 15th of March. On 10th of March the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, announced that Ankara will patrol the territories to the north from the M-4 highway, and the Russian military will patrol areas to the south from the highway.

2 Syria

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that there are random single violations of the ceasefire, reached between Moscow and Ankara for the Idlib de-escalation zone, in Syria. “We are reporting about it to Russia. We want the necessary measures to be taken. We want this temporary ceasefire to become permanent” — the ‘NTV’ quoted Erdogan. He also noted that he doesn’t know »how long the regime will be able to observe the moratorium on the hostilities». Erdogan underlined that while the other side is observing the terms of the agreement — Turkey will also be faithful to the ceasefire. Otherwise, Turkey will attack the Syrian army »with even greater forces»

3 Syria

Buseyn Shaaban, the adviser to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated that Syria noted several cases of ceasefire violations in Idlib by Turkey after the Russian-Turkish agreement came into force — the ‘RIA NEWS’ quoted Buseyn Shaaban. She underlined that Syria remains committed to the ceasefire. «We are ready to adhere to the ceasefire. We will fulfill all the obligations that we have taken. The ceasefire meets our goals in order to defeat the terrorism, and to achieve the peace» — Buseyna Shaaban said. She added that Damascus expects the NATO and the EU to condemn Turkish actions in Syria that «go against all the international laws»

4 Russia

The Russian Ministry of Defense denied the statements made earlier by the Turkish president about the destruction of 8 Syrian air defense systems ‘Pantsir’ by the Turkish combat drones. «Those statements are a blatant exaggeration» — the Russian defense ministry announced. “As a result of the massive attacks by the Turkish combat UAVs — only 2 Syrian air defense systems ‘Pantsir’ were damaged. Currently their repair is nearly completed” — the ministry explained. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense — the main Syrian forces and their air defense systems, including the «Pantsir» AA systems, are concentrated mostly around the city of ​​Damascus. The Syrian forces have only 4 «Pantsir» AA systems in the Idlib de-escalation zone.

5 Afghanistan

The President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, signed a decree to pardon and release Taliban prisoners — the ‘TOLO News’ reports while citing a representative of the head of the state. It was reported that about 1,500 people will be released. Their bio-metric data will be collected as well. They will be required to provide a written promise that they will no longer participate in combat actions.

6 The UN

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution in support of the peace agreement between the US and the Taliban. The resolution also states the Council’s readiness to consider the possibility of «reviewing the status of the individuals, groups, and enterprises currently included in the Security Council sanctions list» with the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations. The Russian Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, supported the agreement. He called one of the conditions, needed to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, to be «a review of the Security Council sanctions against Afghanistan». Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.