MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his German colleague Heiko Maas have discussed the situation in Syria during a phone call on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed.
"During the call, they have exchanged opinions on the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, namely on the outcomes of the talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan on October 22 in Sochi and the signing of the memorandum of cooperation between Russia and Turkey," the document notes.
The Russian ministry informed that the sides confirmed their commitment to carry on mutual efforts on stabilizing the humanitarian situation in Syria and combating international terrorism. "The sides agreed that one of the significant steps to achieve Syrian crisis regulation and launching political process could be the launch of the Syrian Constitutional Committee under the auspices of the UN," the ministry added.
The talks were held on the initiative of the German side.
On October 9, Turkey launched a military incursion into northern Syria, codenaming it Operation Peace Spring, with the Turkish Armed Forces and the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army carrying it out. Erdogan’s military campaign kicked off with airstrikes on the positions of the previously US-backed Kurdish units. The Erdogan government claimed that its goal is to clear the border area of what it calls ‘terrorists’ (Turkey’s broad label of the Kurdish forces) and establish a 30 km-long buffer zone in Syria’s north, where over 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey would resettle. Ankara’s incursion into Syria has triggered an outcry in the region and across the world. The Syrian SANA news agency branded the operation as an act of aggression, while the international community condemned Erdogan’s military operation.
On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a memorandum on joint actions in northeastern Syria. According to the document, as of noon October 23, Russian military police and Syrian border guards have started to monitor the withdrawal of Kurdish military formations to the depth of 30 km from the border. Russia and Turkey will begin the joint patrolling of the area 150 hours later. On the outcomes of the agreement, Ankara stated that it had suspended its large-scale military operation in the area. However, Turkey retains control over the territories where it plans to relocate Syrian refugees in the future.