© Omar Haj Kadour / AFPHayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants at a camp in Syria's province of Idlib on August 14, 2018.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and some other groups, including the Islamic Turkistan Party and Jaish al-Izza,
have rejected a Turkish-Russian agreement to establish a demilitarized zone in the Syrian province of Idlib and the nearby areas, according to pro-militant sources.
On September 18,
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated that work to establish a new security system in the Idlib de-escalation zone had started. He recalled that
all heavy weapons have to be withdrawn from the demilitarized zone by October 10 and radical groups have to withdraw their forces by October 15.So, Turkey and the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance
have to force the militants to obey the agreement if they seek to enforce the demilitarized zone in time.
Pro-militant media outlets have already started spreading speculations that Damascus will not act up to its part of the agreement thus creating a media environment to justify actions of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies.
Comment: It's hard to reason with unreasonable people, which is what jihadi terrorists are by definition.
From
FARS:
The Arabic-language al-Watan newspaper quoted Russian diplomatic sources as saying that the Russian-Turkish agreement on Idlib will be implemented in three stages, adding that the first stage will go into effect by mid October to create a 15 sq/km weapons-free zone near Idlib city.
Also, in the second stage monitored by Moscow and Ankara, the heavy weapons will be collected from the region until November 10 and the terrorists will leave the civilian areas, they said, adding that in the third stage which lasts to the end of this year, state bodies will resume operation in Idlib.
The sources said that if the terrorist groups do not accept this agreement, they will be considered as enemy of the Turkish army and will be fought.
Meantime, the Arabic-language al-Akhbar newspaper underlined that the Russian-Turkish agreement will create new challenges on Idlib, and said such an agreement is not possible practically because Turkey is now faced with a too difficult mission in which it has earlier failed.
The paper added that convincing the terrorist groups, including Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front), Turkistani, Horas al-Din and Ansar al-Islam, which have set up their important bases in the afore-mentioned 15-km zone to disarm and leave will not be easy.
Leaders of Russia and Turkey agreed to establish a de-militarized zone in Syria's Idlib province, in a move that ostensibly puts on hold a threatened all-out military operations by government forces on Syria's last terrorist bastion.
The announcement was made on Monday during a press conference in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Speaking alongside Erdogan, Putin said the 15-20km-wide zone would be established by October 15.
This would entail a "withdrawal of all radical fighters" from Idlib, including the al-Nusra Front, Putin said, referring to Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham.
Putin added that heavy weapons would be withdrawn from all opposition forces by October 10 - an approach supported by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
All three stages of the Turkey-Russia agreement require terrorist or 'rebel' groups playing along. Of course, it would have been surprising if they did accept - being who they are. But the fact is that Putin, by agreeing to Turkey's use of the diplomatic card in order to save its proxies, has put Erdogan in a position in which he will be forced to side with Russia, Syria and Iran against the militants who are refusing to take Turkey's lead. It seems that once again Putin's 'wise as serpent, gentle as dove' approach is solving a major problem, in this case the
Turkish problem in Idlib.
As for the terrorists themselves, they are still counting on their old dirty tricks:
Russian UN envoy: White Helmets continue to prepare provocations in Idlib
Comment: It's hard to reason with unreasonable people, which is what jihadi terrorists are by definition.
From FARS: All three stages of the Turkey-Russia agreement require terrorist or 'rebel' groups playing along. Of course, it would have been surprising if they did accept - being who they are. But the fact is that Putin, by agreeing to Turkey's use of the diplomatic card in order to save its proxies, has put Erdogan in a position in which he will be forced to side with Russia, Syria and Iran against the militants who are refusing to take Turkey's lead. It seems that once again Putin's 'wise as serpent, gentle as dove' approach is solving a major problem, in this case the Turkish problem in Idlib.
As for the terrorists themselves, they are still counting on their old dirty tricks:
Russian UN envoy: White Helmets continue to prepare provocations in Idlib