Syria Crisis: Russia Deploys Forces into Safe Zones

Local Editor

As part of a new settlement in Syria, Russia deployed military police to monitor two safe zones being set up in Syria.

Senior Defense Ministry official Sergei Rudskoi said in a statement Monday Russian forces had set up checkpoints and observation posts around a zone in the southwest and in Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus.

The two areas are part of a broader Moscow-backed plan to create four "de-escalation zones" in the militant-held parts of Syria.

Rudskoi said that Russian military police had set up two checkpoints and four observation posts in Eastern Ghouta.

Military police had also been deployed to try to enforce the de-escalation zone in southwest Syria Friday and Saturday, it said in the same statement, adding that two checkpoints and 10 observation posts had been set up there.

Under a second deal Moscow said it struck with the so-called "moderate" rebels over the weekend in Egypt, Russian forces Monday also set up two checkpoints and four observation posts in the area covering conflict-ravaged Eastern Ghouta, he added.

The Syrian army Saturday announced a halt in fighting for parts of Eastern Ghouta.

On the other two proposed safe zones, Rudskoi said that while boundaries have been fixed in the north of the Homs province they have still not been agreed in Idlib on the border with Turkey. Further discussions on hammering out details of those two zones are set to take place at a fresh round of peace talks in Kazakhstan in late August.

The Defense Ministry's call marks the first deployment of foreign troops to bolster the safe zones as Moscow seeks to pacify Syria.

In an interview to Kurdish Rudaw television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Monday praised the creation of the safe zones, saying it showed Russia can work with the United States under President Donald Trump.

Russia's top diplomat said the fact that President Vladimir Putin and Trump agreed on creating de-escalation zones in southern Syria at their first meeting at the G-20 was "a concrete example that we can work together."

Earlier this month Russia, the US and Jordan struck a deal to fix the boundaries of this zone and impose a cease-fire in the area.

Lavrov contrasted the negotiations with Barack Obama's administration, which he said "turned out to be incapable of separating terrorists from the normal opposition" in Syria.

"Only now through the concept of safe zones are we getting results in this area," Lavrov said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team