MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Counter-terrorist efforts in Syria will be continued, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the Moscow. Kremlin. Putin program on the Rossiya-1 television channel on Sunday.
Peskov noted that Russian military facilities in Syria also come under shelling by terrorists. "That is why, fight against these terrorist elements will be continued against all the odds," he said.
He stressed that under the Sochi agreements Turkey was supposed to ensure inaction of these elements. "Regrettably, Turkey has failed to implement its commitments and terrorists have gone over to the offensive against Syrian armed forces," he added.
Peskov recalled that Russia is the only country to have its soldiers in Syria "at the request from the Syrian legitimate government." "Servicemen of all other countries are staying in Syria in violation of the norms and principles of international law," he added.
The situation around Idlib aggravated on February 27 when, according to the Russian defense ministry, militants attempted a large-scale attack. The Syrian government army retaliated by delivering a strike, which, Ankara claims, killed 33 Turkish soldiers. The Russian defense ministry said however that the Turkish soldiers who had come under fire from the Syria army were fighting along with the terrorists.
The current aggravation was in a focus of a telephone conversation between Russian and Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They stressed the necessity of the normalization of the situation and agreed to look at a possible top-level meeting in the coming days.