Russia’s special envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev
Moscow has proposed to four de-escalation zones in Syria at the new round of the Astana peace talks.
According to an official statement, this effort is another attemt amed at separatiing terrorists from the so-called moderate opposition.
“We believe that [the creation of de-escalation zones in Syria] can really help to move along the long-standing problem of separating the moderate Syrian opposition from terrorist organizations, primarily the Islamic State [ISIS] and Jabhat al-Nusra [now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham], and will help significantly reduce the level of armed confrontation between the Syrian armed opposition and government forces,” Russia’s special presidential envoy for Syria, Aleksandr Lavrentiev, said at a press briefing summarizing the first day of the peace talks.
“We decided to go this way to create such zones in which the fight against terrorist organizations will be directly taken up by the moderate opposition themselves with the support of the guarantor countries,” he added.
No additional details about the four proposed de-escalation zones are available.
However, there are serious doubts that such a plan could be implemented on the ground. Yesterday, the Syrian “moderate opposition” announced that it was suspending participating in the Astana peace talks blaming Moscow and Damascus for violations of the ceasefire.
