MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. The development of the situation in the Afrin area in northern Syria regarding the ongoing Turkish operation against Kurdish troops is raising concerns, and Moscow calls on the parties to show restraint, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

"We continue to monitor the development of the situation in northern Syria; it is deeply concerning," she said. "We again call on the parties to show restraint."

The Syrian National Dialogue Congress

The decisions approved by the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi will lay a foundation for movement ahead in Syria at higher speeds, she went on. 

"The decisions passed in Sochi will become, as we hope, a domain of the intra-Syrian talks brokered by the United Nations in Geneva and on other floors to help find a solution in Syria with participation of Syrian sides, first of all at Astana," she said. "We hope that will lay a foundation for movement ahead and it is important that the process will step up a gear."

Russia thinks that a refusal by some Syrian opposition activists to attend the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi was a political mistake, she added. "We are convinced that it is a political mistake. However, the forum’s atmosphere was not marred by those people’s refusal," she said.