Iran Press- In an interview with Russian 1 TV Channel , Lavrov affirmed that the de-escalation zone in Idlib province is the only zone in which tens of thousands of terrorists are positioned led by Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization, SANA reported from Moscow.
Lavrov called upon the administration of US President Donald Trump to not repeat the mistakes of his predecessor Barack Obama whose team officially pledged to separate Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization from the other armed organizations, but it didn’t do anything to achieve that reported IRNA.
He said that the three guarantor states of Astana process, namely (Russia, Iran and Turkey) want to end the war in Syria and to create the suitable conditions to enable the Syrians to choose their fate by themselves without any foreign interference or any attempt to impose solutions on them.
He underlined the importance of the participation of the Russian forces in the military operation against terrorist organizations in Syria.
He added that no one of those who speak about the issue of saving lives of people and respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states has done anything to prevent the attempts of terrorists to establish control over Damascus.
Earlier on Aug 29,2018 ,Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the United States’ scenario for Syria to change the political system in that country has failed.
Furthermore , on Aug22 ,2018 ,Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a press conference with his Serbian counterpart Ivica Dacic, criticised the non-compliance of some countries with international resolutions for hindering the settlement to the crisis in Syria.
“Problems pertaining to the crisis in Syria are not in the Russian stance but in the hesitancy surrounding the implementation of international resolution no. 2254 related to this settlement”, Russian Foreign Minister added.
The resolution referred to by Lavrov has identified steps for a political solution to the crisis in Syria, stating that the solution should be in the hands of the Syrian people themselves.
In Aug, 14, speaking to journalists in Ankara, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: "We won’t probably see any direct linkage with the Syrian crisis in the statements made by the US side when it declares sanctions against our countries (Russia, Iran and Turkey). But objectively, of course we feel the wish of the West, and first of all the US but not only the US, to prevent the Astana process from achieving concrete results and present it as not quite successful," he said. "These attempts were seen earlier, and most likely they will continue," the top Russian diplomat added.
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The top Russian official also went on to say that Russia sees the intentions of the US and the West who want to impede the Astana process for settlement of the Syrian conflict.
Iran, alongside Russia and Turkey, is a guarantor of the ceasefire regime in Syria. The three guarantor states initiated the Astana Process on January 23, 2017, establishing de-escalation zones in an effort to restore calm in the region and improve the humanitarian situation in war-torn Syria.
These diplomatic efforts come as the Syrian army’ is preparing to attack Idlib , the last stronghold of terrorists in the north.
With the help of Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, the Syrian army is preparing for the Idlib operation, a strategically-important region which shares a border with Turkey and is also close to the coastal Latakia Province.
Idlib also hosts Turkish-backed militants fighting against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey, the countries acting as the guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria, will meet in Tehran on Friday Sep 7 ,2018 for a third summit seeking an end to the crisis gripping the Arab country.
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The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura begs the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to talk and find a 'soft solution' for Idlib, at a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday Sep 5 2018.
On the same date, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also stressed that a positive outcome is expected from the upcoming Syria summit in Iran.
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However despite US and De Mistura's position on the Issue, Iran's deputy foreign minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said in a televised speech on Tuesday Sep 4 ,2018 , that the Astana negotiations have been going on for over two years and Astana talks resumed through active presence of Iran, Turkey and Russia, he said.
Alongside Astana talks, 'we witnessed resumption of Geneva talks' in which western countries failed to invite Iran but the result of such negotiations did not bear fruit, Araqchi was quoted by IRNA.
Related News : Araqchi: Astana Process on Syria making progress
Geneva talks turned to be a center for those countries leaving destructive role in Syria and they spared no efforts to support terrorists, he said.
Geneva talks was under supervision of the UN, but is now inactive and it is for long time we hear no news about them, Araqchi said.
Presently Syria is experiencing a very sensitive period as terrorists have been uprooted in different parts of Syria through close cooperation countries forming Astana meeting and Syrian government and army and all have sheltered in Idlib city, he said.
Meanwhile The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Tuesday Sep 4 ,2018 , has stressed that our priority should be to minimize loss of life when expelling terrorists from Syria's Idlib province.
Speaking on Tuesday afternoon in the Iranian parliament (Majlis), Zarif said he had some very useful discussions with senior Syrian officials in his recent trip to Damascus. Zarif said the discussions were good vis-a-vis bilateral ties and other issues.
He added: "Since conditions in Idlib province are very sensitive, we must minimize the human cost ( loss of life ) of expelling terrorists from the province."In further remarks, Zarif said "By Friday, God willing, our discussions with nations of the Astana process would be finalized and the expulsion of terrorists from Idlib province should be carried out in a such a way as to cause minimum damage to the Syrian people, and result in minimum loss of life."
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It is worth noting that Idlib province is the last stronghold of terrorists in Syria, and if terrorists are expelled from this province, the war in Syria would be effectively over, and president Bashar al-Assad and his government would have clinched a remarkable victory against US-trained and US-armed terrorists.
More than 330,000 people have been killed in Syria and millions have been driven from their homes since the conflict began in March 2011, and the infrastructure of the country destroyed.
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