Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Moscow on Thursday, agreeing on a ceasefire between all groups in and around Idlib, including a halt to recent clashes between Turkish and Syrian regime forces. The ceasefire took effect at midnight on March 6.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor, has since reported a “tense calm” in areas impacted by the truce.
“Activists have confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that tense calm, in terms of aerial and ground bombardment and clashes, has been still prevailing in the entire area…for the second consecutive day since Russia – Turkey ceasefire came into effect in the area,” SOHR said on Saturday.
As part of Thursday’s deal, Putin and Erdogan agreed to halt all military activities in Idlib, begin conducting joint military patrols on Syria's strategic M4 highway on March 15, and establish a “safe corridor” six kilometers deep northward and six kilometers deep southward of the highway.
The ceasefire is termed as “additional protocol” to a similar ceasefire announced by Ankara and Moscow in September 2018, which has not been fully implemented. The two countries have accused one another of not adhering to the deal.
Supported by the Russian air force, Syrian regime forces launched an offensive against former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadists and their allied rebels in Idlib on December 1, resulting in the regime’s recapture of swathes of territory it lost soon after the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011.
The embattled province and its surrounding areas have seen little respite since then. Fighting recently grew so intense that Turkey deployed thousands of its troops to the area to assist its allies. Scores of Turkish soldiers were killed by the Russia-assisted Syrian army.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad commended the deal during a phone call with Putin on Friday.
"Bashar Assad praised the outcome of talks between the Russian and Turkish leaders and expressed gratitude to the Russian president for the support to the fight against terrorist groups and efforts aimed at ensuring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria," according to a post-call readout from the Kremlin.
A Turkish presidency official said on Saturday that his country will continue working with the Russians to first and foremost prevent the outpouring of civilians, nearly a million of whom have been displaced from the Idlib area since December.
“Turkey continues to work with both Russia and the US to achieve stability and peace in Syria. Our first priority is to prevent new IDP and refugee outflows from Idlib and stop the regime from pushing civilians out of the region,” presidency Communications Director Fahrettin Altun tweeted.
“The implementation will be critical and we will not tolerate any violations by the regime, which has violated every previous agreement,” he said in another tweet.
However, a short period of ceasefire-induced calm will likely do little to abate the fears of the province’s long-suffering civilians, and SOHR on Saturday reported fresh clashes between “regime forces and jihadi groups” in northwestern Hama province, an area within the Idlib de-escalation zone.
“The truce is only a chance for the two sides to catch their breath,” Zaqzaq, who lives in the rebel-held Idlib province town of Binnish told the Associated Press. “It’s a very fragile truce and I don’t think it will last long.”
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