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Russia urges international monitors deployed on Turkey-Syria border — FM

The diplomat drew attention to the problem of ‘holes’ on the Turkish border through which gunmen and weapons get into Syria

Turkish border crossing with Syria on the outskirts of the town of Kilis AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

Turkish border crossing with Syria on the outskirts of the town of Kilis

© AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

TOKYO, April 15./TASS/. Russia sees no other way to solve problems on the Turkish-Syrian border but to deploy observers there, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said after talks with Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida on Friday.

The diplomat drew attention to the problem of ‘holes’ on the Turkish border through which gunmen and weapons get into Syria, while going in the opposite direction is "a flow of different contraband, which has decreased du to the activity of our Aerospace Forces, but still exists."

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"We are regularly posing this question to all our partners who are interested in the settlement of the Syrian crisis, including to Americans as Turkey is a member of the US-led anti-terrorist coalition," Lavrov said.

"US representatives assure us that they are also concerned about the border problem and work with Ankara to solve it," he went on.

"As Turkey denies the very existence of the problem, we propose, so far not in any official format but as a draft resolution or some other decision, that Turkey invites independent international observers to its territory to watch what is going on on this border in reality," he said.

"There is no other way out as Islamic State is operating on the Syrian part of this border between the two countries," he said.

"It is clear that international observers can be deployed only at the invitation of Turkey, we are pinpointing the issue, including in the United Nations, in the hope that Western allies will put pressure on Ankara and will get a concrete answer from it," Lavrov said.

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Foreign policy Islamic State Syrian conflict

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