DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – The main terrorists group in northwest Syria will announce its position on a Turkish-Russian deal over Idlib in the next few days, it said on Monday, with its acceptance or rejection vital to the success of efforts to contain the war.
Tahrir al-Sham’s stance will be critical to last week’s deal in Idlib, which along with adjacent areas of the northwest is the terrorist group’s last major foothold.
The agreement requires "radical” militants including Tahrir al-Sham to withdraw from a demilitarized zone along the frontlines by October 15.
"An official statement will be issued soon,” after the group held internal consultation on the deal, said Emad al-Din, media officer for Tahrir al-Sham. He clarified that "soon” meant within a few days.
In a statement released late Saturday, the so-called National Liberation Front (NLF), an alliance of militant factions supported by Ankara, said it would cooperate with Turkey in Idlib, but ruled out disarming.
"We will not abandon our weapons, our land or our revolution" against Syrian government forces, the group said.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyib Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi and announced an agreement on Idlib which is the last major terrorist-held bastion in Syria.
Following the meeting, Putin told a joint news conference with Erdogan that they had agreed to create a demilitarized zone of 15-20 kilometers in Idlib along the contact line between the armed opposition and government troops by October 15.
The agreement involved the withdrawal of "radically-minded” militants, including the al-Nusra Front, from the region, he added.
Erdogan said both Turkey and Russia would carry out coordinated military patrols on the borders of the buffer zone in a bid to detect and prevent "provocation by third parties and violations of the agreement."
Meanwhile, Erdogan said in comments broadcast on Turkish media on Monday that Turkey will take action east of the Euphrates river in Syria and impose secure zones as it has done in the northwest of the country.
Earlier this year, Turkey carried out a military operation to seize control of Syria’s Afrin region from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. The YPG also controls the Syrian region east of the Euphrates.
"God willing, in the period ahead we will increase the number of secure zones in Syria, encompassing the east of the Euphrates,” Erdogan said in a speech during a visit to New York.
Before the Afrin operation, Turkey also carried out a cross-border operation dubbed "Euphrates Shield”, which targeted both the YPG and Daesh terrorists east of Afrin.