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Russia keeps close eye on US-Turkey talks on security zone in northeastern Syria — Lavrov

The Turkish and US military agreed to set up a joint operations center in Syria to create a buffer zone to accommodate Syrian refugees returning from Turkey

MOSCOW, September 2. /TASS/. Russia is keeping a close eye on the talks between the United States and Turkey on a security zone in northeastern Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday after talks with his visiting Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"We are keeping a close eye on the talks between the United States and Turkey on security at the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Russia last week and had talks with President Vladimir Putin, informed in detail about these talks, about the problems that so far defy resolution," he said.

Russia recognizes the necessity of solutions that "would not make another serious regional problem out of the Kurdish issue," Lavrov noted. "We want all the decisions taken in the context of the US-Turkey talks to respect the interests of Arab tribes that have been traditionally living on the territories that are now scene of development on the Euphrates’ east bank."

According to the Russian top diplomat, Moscow will support only those solutions in Syria’s northeast that respect that country’s sovereignty. "We will support only those solutions that fully respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," he stressed.

The Turkish and US military agreed on August 7 to set up a joint operations center in Syria. The first group of the US military arrived in the Turkish town of Urfa (Sanliurfa), located some 50 km from the Syrian border, on August 12. The center has been established by the two countries in order to fulfill a plan of creating a buffer zone in northern Syria to accommodate Syrian refugees returning from Turkey, which sees that zone as a ‘safety belt’ along its border. Ankara insists on exercising control over the would-be zone.