Damascus government will not allow Idlib to turn into terrorist stronghold: Envoy
Tehran (KNA) - Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja'afari says the incumbent Damascus government will not allow foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists to turn the embattled northwestern province of Idlib into a new haven for themselves.
"Idlib is part of Syria, and it is natural for the Syrian government to fight terrorism in order to rid its nation from the scourge and establish full sovereignty over its soil," Ja'afari said at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting in New York City on Friday.
Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on September 17, all militants in a demilitarized zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama, were supposed to pull out heavy arms by October 17, and Takfiri groups had to withdraw by October 15.
The National Front for the Liberation of Syria is the main Turkish-backed militant alliance in the Idlib region, but the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, which is a coalition of different factions of terror outfits, largely composed of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, holds a large part of the province and the zone.
The HTS, which is said to be in control of some 60 percent of Idlib province, has yet to announce its stance on the buffer zone deal.
Source: PressTV