Putin-Erdogan agreement on Idlib to be implemented, while Damascus and Tehran impede it – Opposition official

North-Press Agency

Yahya al-Aridi, the head of the media office of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) in the Syrian opposition, said on Thursday that the agreement reached in Moscow last month about Idlib is heading towards implementation, with constant obstacles by the Syrian government and Iran.

At the beginning of last March, a new agreement was announced between Russia and Turkey after an attack by Syrian government forces with Russian support on the de-escalation zone in Idlib in an attempt to control the M4 and M5 highways, and tighten control over the entire greater Idlib.

Al-Aridi said in an interview with North-Press that the agreement between the Russian and Turkish presidents on Idlib is heading towards implementation with constant obstacles by the Syrian government and Iran, specifically because they are practically the main victims of this agreement.

Al-Aridi attributed the reason behind the obstacles that the Syrian government and Iran are putting in front of the agreement because it undermines the approach adopted by Syrian government by putting its hand on the entire Syrian geography, and the agreement ends the arguments and excuses that the government was making and putting it in front of any solution that speeds up the political process, which practically accelerates the end of the Iranian presence in Syria and consequently the end of the Syrian government.

According to al-Aridi, the recent agreement between Russia and Turkey regarding Syria will not be doomed to die like other previous agreements, considering Turkey's strong intervention and Russia's calculations of its interests with Turkey, after it was exhausted by the intervention in Syria.