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Russian and Turkish military in Idlib have full mutual understanding, Lavrov says

Military representatives of both Russia and Turkey stay in constant contact, the Russian top diplomat said

MUNICH, February 17. /TASS/. Russian and Turkish military in Idlib stay in constant contact, there is full mutual understanding between them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists in the wake of the Munich Security conference.

"Military representatives of both Russia and Turkey, who are on the ground in Syria, in Idlib province, stay in constant contact, review situation changes. They have, as we hear both from Russian and Turkish military, full mutual understanding," the minister said.

He reminded that the next round of negotiations between inter-agency delegations of Russia and Turkey takes place in Moscow.

"All facts are on the table," the minister said. "I hope they would be able to present ideas that would allow to de-escalate this situation [in Idlib], based on agreements, reached by the Presidents of Russia and Turkey."

The situation in Idlib escalated sharply after the Russian and the Turkish military attempted to broker yet another ceasefire, only for the terrorists to ramp up their attacks, leading to deaths of Russian and Turkish military specialists. In response, the Syrian army captured the strategic city of Saraqib, located in Idlib province, on February 5.

On February 11, the Syrian opposition, supported by Turkey, began a wide-scale offensive against Syrian Army, covered by heavy Turkish artillery fire. Nusra Front terrorists took active part in the fight.