The operation will not solve the problems, but will create new threats to Turkey’s security, said the Russian representative for the settlement of the Syrian conflict.
Moscow has no doubt that the Turkish army has the potential to succeed in creating the security zone it has previously announced in northern Syria, says it will not fight with Turkey for that reason, but warns Ankara that in this way The existing problems will not be solved, but new ones will be created, which is why he calls on the Turkish leadership to reconsider its decisions.
This was stated by the special envoy of the Russian president for the settlement of the Syrian conflict, Alexander Lavrediev, to the Russian agency RIA-Novosti, summarizing the results of the recent meeting of the “Astana group” in Kazakhstan, in which Russia, Turkey and Iran discusses cooperation in Syria.
“No decision has been made, Turkey has only announced its readiness to conduct the operation “To secure its security by creating a 30-kilometer zone and liberating the Manbij and Tel Rifat areas,” Lavrediev said, noting that “the operation itself will not solve the problems, but will lead to new security threats.” “Because neither the Kurdistan Workers’ Party nor the Syrian Democratic Forces will cease to exist and act against Turkey because of this operation.”
According to the Russian high-ranking diplomat, these forces “will control a large area in northeastern Syria anyway”, so “the most correct way is to seek a peaceful solution to this problem”, as the Russian side warned the Turkish that otherwise “it may to incite Kurdish separatist sentiment and to motivate them to gain statehood, which is not in the interests of either Syria, Turkey, Iran or Iraq. “
“The Russian delegation has made every effort to convince the Turkish side of the counterproductive nature of this step, which could have long-term negative consequences,” Lavrov said, adding that Turkey rejects any negotiations. which Moscow is trying to persuade “to get in touch, to develop relations with Damascus, to find compromises, to reach agreements on the restoration of the unity of Syria, the integration of the Syrian democratic forces in the national Syrian army “, a development that Moscow believes could” prevent the development of the situation based on the negative scenario “.
Asked if Turkey set any conditions for not conducting its operation, Lavrediev said: “We hope that the Turkish president will avoid it, given the negative response from almost all Arab states. “The Arab world has no interest in another piece of Arab land coming under substantially Turkish control,” he said, adding that Russia “does not intend to fight the Turkish army and Syrian forces, which are under the protection of Ankara.
We do not have military units there. Our answer is to try to convince the Turks that this step is not expedient. “They can understand the territories, but what the consequences will be for the further development of the situation is difficult to predict.”
The Russian diplomat did not rule out a direct clash between Turkish and Syrian forceswhich have relatively small fortifications in the area and possibly the Syrian government army “to be forced, if it does not resist, to retreat behind the M4 motorway”.
In fact, Lavrentiev said that no increase in Russian forces is planned in the region, estimating that recently in the areas controlled by the Syrian opposition there has been “some restoration and stabilization of the situation and confrontation of extremist groups”, hence the Russian The air force has reduced its strikes, estimating that “the only problem area is Idlib, where out of 18,000 militants, about 11,500 can be described as moderates, while 6,500 remain armed irreconcilable extremists, who in any case have no place there.”
Lavrov denied that there was any reduction in Russian forces or armaments, air defense and radio warfare in Syria due to the Russian military operation in Ukraine, calling for a change of personnel in Syria.
The Russian diplomat also denied the information about the transfer of Ukrainian grain to Syria, saying that “the main stocks are located in the Nikolaev and Odessa regions, in the ports of which Russian ships do not have access, because they are controlled by Ukraine, there are no wheat warehouses in Mariupol “And” just a week ago the first ship departed from the port of Mariupol, and in fact a Turkish one, so we can not even talk about 100 thousand tons of Ukrainian grain. “
