Time not ripe for military offensive on militant-held Idlib: Russia
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has not ruled out a situation where Syrian forces, backed by Russian air power, would launch a full-scale assault against terrorists in Syria's northern province of Idlib.
Speaking to reporters in the Chinese capital, Beijing, on Saturday, Putin said time was not ripe for such a military operation due to the presence of civilians in parts of the militant-held province.
Such an operation, he said, “is not expedient now" and the security of civilians needs to be taken into account.
"I don't rule it (a full-scale assault) out, but right now we and our Syrian friends consider that to be inadvisable given this humanitarian element," Putin said.
He said Moscow and Damascus would continue their fight against terrorism and that any militants who tried to break out of Idlib, something he said happened from time to time, were bombed.
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Idlib, located in northwestern Syria, remains the only large area in the hands of anti-Damascus militants after government forces -- backed by Iran and Russia -- managed to undo militant gains across the country and bring back almost all of Syrian soil under government control.
Around 90,000 militants are estimated to be holed up in Idlib, which has a population of some three million.
Last September, Russia and Turkey, a backer of a number of militant groups in Syria, inked a buffer zone agreement in Idlib, which put on hold a massive government liberation operation in the region, situated near the Turkish border.
However, a few months later, the so-called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a Takfiri militant alliance dominated by al-Nusra Front terrorists, swept through towns and villages in Idlib.
Meanwhile, Turkey has been trying to avert a Syrian offensive against the city near its borders.
On Friday, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Ja’fari accused Turkey’s intelligence services of supporting HTS t terrorist group, saying Ankara’s move was “another form of terrorism”.
According to Ja’fari, Turkey has provided terrorists in Idlib with dozens of shells charged with toxic chemicals for use against the Syrian army and civilians.
"There is a great amount of chemical weapons in stock in Idlib. They will be put to use if Syria and its allies try to regain control of Idlib by military means,” he said.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the country.
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