Putin Informs Assad about Details of Russia-Turkey MoU on Syria

By Staff, Agencies

Russian President Vladimir Putin informed Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad in a phone call about the provisions of the Russia-Turkey memorandum of understanding on actions in Syria following talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin informed Assad about the outcome of the meeting with Erdogan, which lasted more than six hours, and outlined the main provisions of the memorandum of understanding agreed upon during the meeting, Peskov said.

Putin stressed that in the end, the main task is to restore the territorial integrity of Syria and to continue joint efforts on the political track, including the work within the framework of the Syrian Constitutional Committee, Peskov noted.

The Syrian President expressed support of the decisions taken during the Russia-Turkey summit in Sochi.

According to Peskov, Assad thanked Vladimir Putin, and expressed his full support of the results of the work, as well as the readiness of the Syrian border guards to patrol the border together with the Russian military police," he said.

Earlier in the day, Putin met with Erdogan in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi. The two leaders reached an agreement on Syria during the six-hour talks.

According to Putin and Erdogan, the joint memorandum will allow to resolve a rather urgent situation that has developed on the Syrian-Turkish border.

The memorandum stipulates that Russian military police and Syrian border guards will facilitate the withdrawal of Kurdish militia from a 30-kilometer zone on the border with Turkey within 150 hours starting from Wednesday.

Afterward, the Russian and Turkish forces will begin jointly patrolling the area to the west and the east of Ankara’s operation, except for the border city Qamishli.