Meanwhile, NATO calls on Russia and Syria to halt Idlib offensive as Putin and Erdogan discuss situation by phone, agree to ease tensions and normalize the situation
Russia on Friday said it was sending two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast and blamed Ankara for the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria’s Idlib region the previous day.
The killing of the Turkish soldiers on Thursday and the wounding of 32 others, announced by the governor in Turkey’s Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month.
NATO’s secretary-general called on Russia and Syria on Friday to halt the offensive in Idlib and said, after a meeting of the alliance’s ambassadors, that NATO stood in solidarity with Turkey.
“We call on Russia and the Syria regime to stop the attacks, to stop the indiscriminate air attacks … we also call on Russia and Syria to fully respect the international law,” Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference.”We call on Syria and Russia to fully engage in UN-led efforts to find a peaceful solution for the conflict in Syria.”
NATO ambassadors met on Friday to hold consultations about developments in Syria under Article 4 of the alliance’s treaty at Turkey’s request, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, after the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in a Syrian air strike in the Idlib region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed during a phone call on Friday on the need for new measures to be put in place to ease tensions and normalize the situation in northwest Syria, the Kremlin said.
In a readout of the phone call, the Kremlin said Putin and Erdogan agreed to organise a top-level meeting to address the situation in Syria’s Idlib province that the presidents said was a matter of “serious concern”.
https://www.haaretz.com
