Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rohani have different opinions on Syria. The Turkish president announced at the Tripartite Summit in Tehran that his country would stay in northern Syria with troops present until the situation there has clarified. He will insist that the bombing of the Syrian rebel stronghold Idlib stop and a ceasefire will be achieved, said Erdogan.
However, Kremlin leader Putin said that the Syrian government should bring the whole country back under its control. He also emphasized, as did Iran's President Rohani, not to negotiate with Islamist rebel fighters. In plain English: Putin refuses a fire break.
The Syrian government of ruler Bashar al-Assad wants to recapture the last large area in the hands of the rebels. The province of Idlib is adjacent to Turkey, which already hosts more than three million Syrians. In Idlib Turkey has twelve observation posts. It is there protective power of the Islamist rebels in a so-called de-escalation zone.
MIRROR ONLINE
Fighter jets continued their attacks on Idlib prior to the Syria summit in Tehran. At least eleven bombings had been carried out by the Syrian government and its ally Russia in the southern part of the province on Friday morning, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Thousands of people had also taken to the streets and protested against the expected military offensive.
The opposition observatory gets its information from a network of doctors and activists in Syria. The information is usually not independently verifiable. However, they have proven to be reliable in the past.